The Daughter of Death and Victory
by IvoryPhoenix19
Summary: Sequel to "The Daughter of Fire and Chaos", When the Chaos fort encounters a strange girl who can best even Kaze, They are determined to find out who she is.  The problem is, she knew Jaffa herself, and she actually doesn't know who she is...
1. Replacement Assassin

**Hi guys and gals, again Tis the sequel to my first successful fanfic, The Daughter of Fire and Chaos! I've been getting a lot of hits, and all, but no reviews on what should happen next but here goes, Chapter one!**

**DoubleH POV**

I sat in the seat of the cracked, wooden chair. The creaking, splintered table was stained with beer and heaven knows what else. I shuffled my cards, and unconsciously tugged the cowl of my cape over my face more. No one knew I was a girl. No one needed to know.

As I dealt the cards to a nonexistent person, I heard a slurred voice,

"Nice, firm bum, eh?" I turned slightly to see a drunk, older man touching a young girl of about 16. She had golden hair that fell to her waist, and large, almond shaped, blue eyes that were filled with fear.

"I believe you should let her go." I said quietly, my husky, low voice easily mistaken for a male. The drunk turned to me.

"What'da say?" He demanded, stumbling over to me, but thankfully letting go of the girl. She scampered over to a large man at the bar cleaning the bottles, and they began to converse in low tones.

"I said that she doesn't seem to like you very much." I said louder, my voice becoming more melodic and high, like a girls.

"You a girl?" The man asked. I glared at him.

"Yes." I said, fingering my cards.

The man took in my appearance.

"Lookie here, a young damsel dressed all up in men's clothing!" He exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at us. I clenched my fist on my dagger. First off, I was not a damsel. I was a girl who was very capable of killing that man before he could even blink. Second of all, I wasn't wearing men's clothing; I was wearing a cape, tunic, archer's belt with a quiver and bow, and weapons. Third, I hated it when men and women looked down on me, expecting me to be helpless. I am not helpless.

Suddenly, the door banged open, and a gust of freezing wind raked it's claws over us. The man momentarily turned to the door. 2 figures stood there. One was in a black cloak and faded into the shadows immediately. The second person had a sea green cloak, but it had faded slightly so it wasn't flashy. They too had the cowls over their head, but it was obvious they were both men.

"Two ales bartender." The person in the green cloak said before scanning the crowded room. His gaze fell on me with the drunken man looming over me. Swiftly, they both walked over to us.

"Sir, is this man bothering you?" The one in black asked. The bar was once again silent, and once again staring at me.

"I am not a man." I said calmly. The person in black jerked back at the sound of my voice.

"We're both sorry, ma'am. Is this man bothering you?" The one in green quickly said. I looked at him.

"As you can see by my attire, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself." I said, gesturing to my clothes. They both looked at me.

"Very well then." They both said before moving to another table. Several young ladies immediately made a mad dash to their table and began to flirt with them.

"So, missie, you want to be a man one day?" The drunk asked again, drawing attention to us, again. I noticed the two strangers watching us like it was a show. I tilted my head at him.

"No, I am more capable than most men." I replied, a smirk on my lips. The man roared in outrage, and lunged at me.

Thud.

The man fell, unconscious to the floor. I had knocked him out with a simple knife to temple technique. The bar went totally silent. I quietly put down the knife, and started to shuffle my cards again.

"Ah, Ren, get your cousin outta here." The man tending the bar finally said in a gruff voice. A young man of about 20 with curly brown hair quickly got to his feet, and threw an apologetic look my way. The drunk man was hauled out.

Realizing that I might as well get kicked out of the bar like I always did, I placed a coin on the table, gathered my cards, and walked to the door. Everyone watched me go. My boots made clicking noises on the wooden floor as I reached the door. Suddenly, a hand fell on my shoulder.

I turned. It was the 2 strangers.

"Hi." I said staring at them.

"You seem like a great warrior." The one in green remarked.

"I learn quickly." I replied.

"Come with us and become a comrade." The one in black said. I shook my head.

"I cannot." I replied sadly. Suddenly, the one in green started.

"You have magic." He said, loud enough for the bar to hear. Once again, everyone turned to look at us. I mentally groaned. Why did I have to get all the attention?

"And why is that, good sir?" I asked complacently.

"Your hood, we should be able to see through it." He said mutinously. I shrugged.

"'Twas a gift from her." I murmured. He stared at me.

"It's silver." He said as if he just realized it.

"Who gave you it?" The one in black asked. I screwed up my face.

"A girl. My age, she looks like me, but I swore that I would never show my face." I said. The bar watched, obviously interested.

They both muttered something. A conversation between them. I only caught two words.

Jaffa, and fire.

"What is your name?" The one in the black cloak finally said.

"I have no name. You can call me DoubleH." I replied **(A.N, it's "Double "H", so say don't say "Double huh")**

The bar took in a sharp intake of breath. Both strangers took a step backwards. I didn't blame them.

"You are DoubleH? The DoubleH?" Black cloak asked.

"Yes. Now, can I leave?" I asked, before turning, and walking out of the tavern. My hands itched to stab the door as a reminder of who I was. I was DoubleH. When the Chaos knights came back from Earth, it was said that the assassin, Jaffa, had died and was actually the daughter of fire. Naturally, everyone gossiped and made the story juicy and extremely long.

2 years after that, enemies began to rise. Predators that Jaffa had been hunting. The people of the universe lived in fear, again, as Kaze, Blaze, and Fear weren't able to fight them off since they had no assassin training. The trainee assassins couldn't be everywhere at once, and they were far from being the superior fighter that Jaffa was.

That was where I stepped in. I went from a nobody on Planet Xylo to a mysterious assassin. My skill were the same of Jaffa's. People spread the rumor that Jaffa was actually alive, and I was her. Still, I did my job and went around. The only thing was that when Chaos tried to recruit me, he could never find me.

The two people I had talked with were Kaze and Fear, I was sure of it. I was so elusive, so mysterious that people began to falter in the theory that I was her. I was a different person, and people thirsted to hear more about me. Already I had accomplished every goal that Jaffa had retrieved. I growled as I melted into the shadows.

Kaze and Fear would contact Chaos for sure. I was going to have to find a new hiding place. Whatever idiot idea had taken place in me had caused me to make the show. Now, everyone even knew I was a girl. Darn.

Suddenly, an idea took place in my mind. I grinned. Didn't Earth seem like a good place to live? Definitely.

But first… a message to deliver.

**Percy POV**

Nico and I trudged across the muddy road of Planet Parba, looking around for any bad guys to take care off. It had been a long day, and we were both ready for some relaxation. There was no sign of the person we were looking for.

DoubleH. Another assassin. She/he would be the perfect recruit for Chao's army. The perfect new assassin. Just like Jaffa. Jaffa; just thinking about her made me sad. She had gave her life to save Camp Half-Blood 2 years ago. She was actually the daughter of fire to. The daughter of fire was a legendary person who traveled about using her powers to help people.

She was the most powerful person in the universes, and she died. She died to save us. Not to mention that she was my girlfriend. Without Jaffa, it was like half our forces were gone. Half the knights were staggering coffee-holics from trying to stay awake even later and from fighting so much. Half the trainee assassins had barely any professional training.

So caught up in my thoughts, I didn't realize that we had reached a cozy looking tavern at the end of the icy road.

"Can't hurt to stay for a bit." Nico decided, shivering in his huge cloak.

We walked in, feeling the immediate warmth of the fire in the corner.

"Two ales bartender." I said shortly before my gaze roamed the room and fell on a young man. He was crouched down in his seat, beneath a seemingly drunk man. He was wearing a silver cloak like ours, and it flowed to his heeled boots. The cowl was pulled low over his head as if he didn't want anyone to see his face.

A long bow hung casually over one of his shoulders along with a quiver filled to the brim with sharp tipped arrows. I nudged Nico and we walked over to the man who was staring impudently up at the drunk.

"Sir, is this man bothering you?" Nico questioned. People turned to look at the commotion and the silver man shifted like he didn't want their gazes on him.

"I am not a man." The person said. Nico almost lost his footing at her voice. It was low and smoky, but had a touch of angelic sweetness. I almost cursed. Then I almost laughed. The whole time it had been a girl under the cloak. Now that I knew, I cursed myself for not realizing that she was a girl in the first place.

"We're both sorry, ma'am. Is this man bothering you?" I said in order to apologize for Nico. She turned to address me.

"As you can see by my attire, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself." She said, shrugging her shoulders slightly until I paid attention to her weapons. Nico and I studied her. She wore her cloak with ease as if she had been born wearing it. The thick material shimmered slightly, but blended well with the shadows. A dark shadow cast over her face except for her mouth.

The long bow was held over her shoulder with the practiced comfort of one who was used to the weapon. The bended wood was of good quality and very well taken care of. A small notch was carved into the side, a trick that all knights and assassins knew so that their arrows flew faster and straighter.

Although the table and cloak hid most of her body, I could see a leather belt with a dagger sheath and a sword sheath on it. Her left hand rested without effort on the dagger. I nodded.

"Very well then." Nico and I said together before moving to an enclosed table. Several women scurried over to us and began to talk in squeals.

"So, missie, you want to be a man one day?" I heard behind me. I turned slightly, completely ignoring the women, and observed the girl and the drunk. The girl looked up at him.

"No, I am more capable than most men." She said airily, smirking at him. The drunk gave a yell and leaned over the table at him. What happened next was unbelievable. Within half a second, the girl stood up, grabbed her dagger in an icepick hold, and slammed the butt of the dagger into the man's temple.

The man fell to the floor, totally unconscious. The few conversations still going on in the room wiped out as everyone stared at the girl. She silently put her knife away, sat down, and started to play with her cards again like what she did was as simple as brushing her teeth.

"Ah, Ren, get your cousin outta here." The bartender finally grunted, waving over a young man with curly hair and a smooth, mischievous face over to the drunk. The curly headed man gave an apologetic look at the mysterious girl, and dragged the drunk out.

The girl stood up, again, and put her cards into a satchel on her belt before placing down a coin and striding out the room. Her boots clacked on the wooden floor as the bar silently watched her leave. Nico and I stood up, our telepathic abilities kicking in.

Since we understood each other so much, we could almost always know what was going on in the other person's mind. We both knew that this girl would be a great addition to our knights.

As the girl reached the door, I placed a hand on her shoulder. Up close, I realized that she was extremely tall. The cloak accentuated her slender and curvy figure, and her boots gave her another few centimeters in height, giving her a mysterious air. She was about as tall as me in her boots, maybe a few inches shorter.

"Hi." She said, observing us.

"You seem like a great warrior." I said, getting straight to the point. No need to beat around the bush. Not with some people staring at us.

"I learn quickly." She said calmly.

"Come with us and become a comrade." Nico offered, but she shook her head.

"I cannot." She told us wistfully. Then, I suddenly realized that I couldn't see her face, even in the light of the fire.

"You have magic." I observed loudly, and everyone turned their attention to us. She gave a little groan. I almost smiled. Tough luck mystery girl.

"And why is that, good sir?" She asked, completely innocent. She was a good actress.

"Your hood, we should be able to see through it." I muttered, and she tensed the slightest bit before shrugging her shoulders.

"'Twas a gift from her." She said in a low voice. I looked at her carefully. Her cloak was silver. Silver, Jaffa's color.

"It's silver." I remarked to show my thoughts.

"Who gave you it?" Nico questioned. Her lips pursed, and I could just see her squinting her eyes as she tried to remember.

"A girl. My age, she looks like me, but I swore that I would never show my face." She finally concluded before glancing silently at the bar. I did to. They were all hanging on our every word.

"it's Jaffa's cloak." Nico murmured to me.

"We refer to her as the daughter of fire now, Nico." I hissed back.

"Ack, Whatever, so she knows who Jaffa is, and Jaffa knew she was important." Nico replied.

"We should at least get her name so we can track her if she tries to get away." I finally said.

As we turned back to the girl, I realized that she probably had good ears. I hoped she wasn't a spy for Gaea.

"What is your name?" Nico said bluntly.

"I have no name. You can call me DoubleH." The girl said, smiling mysteriously.

The bar gasped, and both Nico and I took a step back. We had found DoubleH.

"You are DoubleH? The DoubleH?" Nico demanded.

"Yes. Now, can I leave?" She said, so calm, it was as if she was a stream, flowing silently in the woods. She turned away from us and stalked out the bar into the cold air. Nico and I wasted no time following her. Once we were outside, Nico quickly traced the air with his shadows, and I quietly gave a scan on the area. Empty. Completely empty. How that girl managed to move so fast was a mystery.

Nico groaned quietly. "Something is blocking it." No sign of the mysterious girl. I sighed.

"Best to alert Chaos for now." I muttered, sliding stealthily along in the shadows before traveling to Chao's fort.

Once there, I quickly called an emergency meeting. Everyone came quickly.

"What is it?" Mist asked (Calypso)

"News of DoubleH." Nico replied, and the tension got a whole lot bigger.

"What? No way!" William exclaimed, straightening up.

"Yes way. We ran into her at the bar on Planet Parbas." I said.

"She knocked out a man twice her size that was drunk and trying to kill her within half a second." Nico added.

"Darn…." Grace said (**AN, The grace who is the assassin is like the real person whom I based this off of, so she cusses a lot, but since I don't do potty mouthing, You all know what I mean when Grace says words like that…)**

"NO POTTY MOUTHING!" Everyone exclaimed. It had become an inside joke when Jaffa punished grace by making her wash out her mouth with soap.

"I know. The only thing is… she told us along with the entire bar that she was DoubleH. I doubt that someone as mysterious as her would tell that many people." I muttered. Bi (Bianca) nodded.

"That's true. For years, we've tried to catch her, any signs, any clues, anything… so why does she show up now?"

"There's more." Nico said grimly.

"She's wearing Jaffa's cloak, and Jaffa gave it to her. We all know how Jaffa is with her clothes." He continued. A stunned silence met his fact.

"Darn…." Grace said again. For once, no one decided to correct her.

Jaffa is very, very, very picky about everything. No one can touch her stuff. If you so much as even think about it, you will die a very painful death that includes whips, a fifty pound block of ice cream, and a feather. Don't ask about the feather.

"So what are we going to do?" Jace asked (Jason)

"Well, one thing is for sure, that person was definitely DoubleH. Even though she revealed herself, when we followed her outside, we couldn't find any trace of her except that she had somehow blocked all of Nico's shadows. We all know how powerful Nico is… and this probably proves that Jaffa isn't human." I finally said.

Sloane groaned.

"Why does this assassin have to be so hard to catch?" She demanded, throwing up her hands in the air.

Suddenly, Chaos shimmered into existence in the room. Everyone snapped to attention.

"Lord Chaos, I'm sure you heard of the news." I said politely.

"Yes, we have some footage of DoubleH moving to Earth… the only thing is; is this a trap, or is this just a mistake on her part?" Chaos asked, thrusting some photos at us.

I wanted to scream. This girl was going to be the death of me.

Suddenly, a flaming arrow streaked past us all, and slammed with a dull thud in the wall. Attached to the feather was a note. We all barely got a chance to read it before it burned to ashes.

_I need your help_

_Double H_

We all looked at each other.

"Well… now we know where to go." Grace said finally.

I groaned.

"This had better not be a false alert." I grumbled.

"Hopefully not. Next stop, Earth." Camden muttered before going to the weapons room to get ready.

Thalia, Nico and I exchanged glances.

"For Jaffa." I said, hopping off the seat.

"For Jaffa." Nico and Thalia agreed.

**Alrighty! I'm done with chapter 1, and chapter 2 is soon coming up! Review and tell me what you guys think! More than 3,000 hits already! *whistles appreciatively* I luv y'all! **

**OH YES! I'm doing a HUNGER GAMES REENACTMENT WITH MY FRIENDS! the only problem… I go to an "all girls" school… so no guys in the movie. oh well. SO anyways, I'm Rue, and maybe Cato or a career that gets killed by Clove… cause I'm cool like that. I'll tell you when I'm sure who I am…. **

**LUV YALLLLLLL**


	2. I see the Past

**I'm here again! Next chapter, and well, I hope you guys like it, because my inspiration is running short. I need ideas, and OCs… please please please review and tell me some ideas and OCs! I NEED IDEAS AND OCS…**

***goes into blood thirsty mode with bloodshot eyes* Plus the fact that I haven't been sleeping in like weeks… and the fact that Narwhal lover has been having some depression issues… not that she sits around, it's just that she doesn't understand how much her parents love her and she thinks that she's alone in the world… Well, my life's heck right now. Anyways, hope the story is as good as always, and I luv y'all!**

**Will POV**

I stealthily snuck down the hallways to the transportation center. I froze as Blaze swished past me, and I crouched to stay hidden in the shadows. Being an assassin meant that I had to act like one to. Everything around me could be dangerous.

Most of the time, all assassins could not be found unless called because we hid around the fort. Beside me, Grace nudged me to go ahead. Since she was taller and had a more clear view of the space around us thanks to her powers (she was the daughter of Aeolus).

We scrambled forward, and silently slipped into the transportation center, our hands ready to snatch up our weapons. This is how it had been since Jaffa had gone. She patrolled most of the time because she knew the Chaos fort so well, and because she was an excellent fighter.

Now, we just snuck around, paranoid that something bad might catch us unawares. Like when Jaffa was killed.

Once we found no trace of any bad guys, we slipped into our leader's transportation pad. Since Blaze taught me, and Kaze taught Grace, we both slipped into different rooms.

Jaffa's capsule was like a huge, glittering silver mound of space junk that had a curtain of roots in the door way, and the whole thing glowed with a tinge of red like it had been lighted red hot in the fire. When you peering into it, the floor was basically a pool of red hot lava, but it didn't hurt, so it was fine.

There were rocky stepping stones that lead to the teleportation circle in the center, a large circle made of meshed roots. When Jaffa was ready to transport anyone, the roots would make a cage around the people, and Jaffa would boom travel.

Boom travel is basically when you move so fast, you arrive at the exact same time you left… which is pretty hard, but Jaffa's skilled at it.

Fear's capsule was pitch black and in the shape of a giant skull. Thick, gauzy shades of black mist rolled down the whole skeleton like blinds, and made the entrance (the mouth) seem like one of those Halloween house entrances where you can barely see anything. Sparkling piles of jewels and gold piled up against the skeleton, glinting in the dark light.

In there, there were skeleton torches on the wall, lighting the cave with Greek fire. The floor of the cave is part of the River Styx, so we have to row ourselves over to the center. No one has here ever fallen into the water because the boat is enchanted to make sure you don't.

In the center where Fear shadow travels, there is basically where most of the shadows from the torch light are. We stand on an extremely large pile of gold and jewels and hope to god that we don't fall into the water.

Blaze's capsule is what seems to be a giant disco ball. There are shining lights on it about the size of the pad of my pinky. Each light turns on and off so it looks like lights are reflecting off of the ball. Thunder and small flashes of lightning also surround the disco ball to give it a more theatric look.

Inside, the floor is thin air and fluffy, buoyant clouds. If you fall into the air, you get caught by wind spirits and sent to the clouds again. In the center, there is a huge pedestal shaped like a lightning bolt. Everyone has to hold onto it and then lightning strikes the metal, and we go off into the air.

Kaze's capsule is like a huge clam shell, the shell is a creamy gray, and you basically just walk across it to a huge pearl. Then, it vaporizes you and you fly to wherever you want to go.

Most of the time, we don't need all these fancy stuff, but it's much simpler and easy because we don't want to waste our powers. Also, sometimes, we may feel drained of power or tired, so we need to just go someplace without wasting powers.

The instant I reached the metal pole, I was instantly folded into the air. It actually doesn't hurt, it feels like someone sprayed you with whip cream, and then you feel really light and airy like you're floating. The next thing you know, everything is warped and twisted, but you don't get dizzy. Within seconds, you're at your destination… it's pretty cool.

I landed lightly on my feet and did a quick scan of the area we had transported to. It was a nondescript, dirty school yard. Straggly pieces of paper flew by in the wind, and everything was gray. Gray sky with white clouds, gray, stone washed bricks, gray concrete… Gray everything.

So this was the place DoubleH was hiding out in. Next to me, everyone materialized in Blaze's squad. She did a quick air count, where she tests the air for our kinetic energy, according to our powers and how powerful we are. You can't sense it, you can't see it. It works perfectly for a sneak attack.

Then, there was the slight feel of mist on my cheek, only someone as controlled and skilled as me could feel, and I knew that Kaze had arrived. Like mist, the images of everyone in Kaze's squad seemed to appear, and then they solidified and dropped to the ground.

Without looking, I knew that Nico had finished shadow traveling his troops. We all spread out and did a quick scan of the area. Suddenly, a voice spoke behind us.

"Searching for me is impossible." Immediately, we all whirled. I laid my bow against my arrow and pointed it at the figure. I am an assassin in archery, and others are an assassin in sword fighting or hand to hand combat.

It was a slender figure with a silver cape; definitely Jaffa's cape, with a quiver of arrows and a long bow strung over her shoulder. Kaze and Fear slid their swords back into their sheath.

"DoubleH." Kaze greeted. The girl nodded. So this is DoubleH.

"You came." She said, gesturing to our troops.

"Yes, why do you need our help?" Fear said. She took a deep breath.

"It's Gaea. She has a plan and we need all of us together to help out. We need the knights, the assassins, me, campers and one other person." She told us.

"How do you know Gaea is rising… again?" Kaze asked, and from his tone, I knew he was talking about Jaffa. DoubleH shrugged her shoulders.

"It's a feeling I get. It comes with my powers." She answered. I suddenly realized that we didn't know anything about her. Blaze seemed to think so to.

"What are your powers?" She asked.

"Um… I'm not really sure." DoubleH admitted.

"Well, where do you come from?" Grace asked.

"Planet Xylos was my home." DoubleH told us.

Planet Xylos is one of the planets out in the world that hasn't been discovered by mortals yet. We've been there a fair amount of time in our live. This planet is like us, supernatural, but where we are mythology, they are more of a power kind of planet.

You see, most people who live on Planet Xylos have a magic ability. Kind of like a mutation. Some people are really flexible, or others have super strength or something. Most bad guys have super powers and are using it for the greater bad of the planet, so we go there more often than most planets.

Planet Parba, the planet Fear and Kaze had found DoubleH in, was like the olden day type of thing, you know, there are knights in shining armor and princesses locked up in castles while dragons roam the wilderness. That kind of thing. It's like the background of "King Arthur and the Round Table" type of deal.

So if DoubleH had come from Planet Xylos, she must have some ability.

"Ok, so you have a magic ability that most Xylians have." (Yes, Xylians is the word for the civilians of Planet Xylos.) Kaze decided. DoubleH swallowed.

"Yeah, the only problem is, I have no idea what I am or what my powers are." She said.

"What can you do?" William asked.

"Um… well I always win. At anything I do, and shadows come when I call." She told us. We exchanged glances. Either DoubleH was crazy, or shadows actually moved to her.

"Explain." Kaze told her.

"Well, it's like when I need to get away quickly, or I need something like a ride or I'm tired, I always just whistle or clap my hands or do some sort of signal, and then the shadows just kind of form into a shape.

Like if I'm in need of a quick getaway and I'm in the air, the shadows will form the shape of a giant eagle. It's still a shadow, but it just moves to me, and grabs me, and I don't fall, I just fly away with the shadow of the eagle, and then when I'm the place I want to be, the shadow melts into the other shadows, and I'm all alone again." She told us.

"Do it." Beauty Queen suggested.

DoubleH took a deep breath and gave a low whistle. It was so soft, I could barely hear it. Then, suddenly, the shadows in the courtyard reared and started to make a sort of vortex and funnel. Suddenly, the shadows went back to normal, only there was something odd.

A shadow of a horse was silhouetted against the wall of the courtyard, right out in the sun. There was no horse around, just a black shadow of a horse. DoubleH walked over to the shadow, and climbed up on it. She literally climbed on the shadow.

Sitting astride the horse, she turned to look at us.

"See?" She said. The horse reared, and she slid off. Then, the horse shimmered and melted into the shadows again.

We all stared at her. Finally, Leo decided to talk.

"What are you?" He finally asked. She looked away.

Before she could tell us, a black haze floated in. DoubleH instantly thrust her hands out. We were under attack. I drew my sword, Clash, and slashed at the smoke, but it did nothing. Then, the mist was sucked away like a giant vacuum cleaner was hosing it out of the air.

When I turned around, DoubleH had her hands thrown out, and the mist was being sucked into the palms of her hands. Her whole figure radiated black and silver. Death and Moonlight. Moonlight… Nyx was here.

As the mist was cleared away, all of us could see the oncoming person. She floated in the air on a bed of mist. Her black dress trailed into thin air so I seemed like the ends were mist. The dress flowed out like a wedding dress, a thick sash wrapped around the corset.

The women coming to us had a pale face, not white, but pale. Dark red lips were drawn in a thin line, and heavy eyelids lowered over her golden eyes. Her dark hair was caught up in a knot with a thick black crown.

DoubleH stared at her in horror.

"You." She said before slamming her hands at Nyx as if to push her away. Cords of magic sprang from her hands like Spiderman's webs. I frowned. Magic flowed from the hand, it didn't actually solidify. Most magic was like air, misty, vapor. This… this was actually solid, powerful.

DoubleH was a force to be reckoned with.

The cords of black magic slammed into Nyx, but she kept coming. Closer and closer. The black cords suddenly split and wrapped around Nyx like thin fingers.

She kept coming.

The magic kept flowing from DoubleH's hands, and her eyes glowed. From beneath her hood, I could finally see her face. The glow from her eyes ensured that.

I knew how powerful the hiding spell for the cloaks was, and DoubleH's magic was cutting right through that. I knew that with practice, DoubleH could be the world's most powerful being in history.

Her eyes were a brilliant cerulean with a ring of green around the pupil. Thick lashes rimmed her eyes that were filled with terror. Terror and recognition.

DoubleH's skin was a creamy white with a touch of gold, telling me that she kept hidden most of the time. She had white hair. White. Freaking. Hair. Literally.

It was pure snow white, and no, it wasn't dyed or colored. Her hair was twisted in a ponytail at the back of her head, but I could see it was pretty long. As I observed her more beneath the hood, I saw that she had black highlights. Streaks of black ran down from her part.

Long side bangs curved slightly on the left side of her face. The tips of her side bangs brushed her chin. As the hair flew in front of her face, she looked for a moment, dangerous. Dangerous and mysterious.

Gasps rang out as everyone saw her face. Nyx was only a few yards away from us, but she seemed intent on getting DoubleH. The black cords were already cocooned around most of her, only one arm and her face was left. 1 foot away. 6 inches away. Then, suddenly, she faded into mist, exploding into blackness.

The ropes and cords fell limply to the ground, and DoubleH sucked in a breath. We all finally caught our breath. Nyx was gone. How?

"What are you?" We asked again. Her eyes stopped glowing. One hand reached up and brushed her hood off of her head. We finally saw her face without the glowing eyes.

Her skin was pale, almost white, but there was a slightly golden tone to it that hinted that she was still alive. Her hair was long. It fell down to halfway down her back. She swept her side bangs out of her face, and looked us dead in the eyes.

Her eyes had turned almost black. Then, they shifted to sea green, then gray. Her face was a mix of fae and elvish. Elves are generally more rounded in the face with smaller faces that end in a pointy chin. They usually are fun to be around and smile constantly.

Fae are more graceful and cold. They have sharp faces, all angles, no roundness to their cheeks; no curve to their chins. Their chins are different than the elves to. While the elves have a sharp, pointy chin, Fae usually have a roman style cut face. They both have pointy ears.

DoubleH's ears were not pointed in anyway. Her face tapered to a pointy chin, a common trait in elves. She had high, prominent cheek bones and slightly rounded cheeks, but her face was slender and wan. Fae usually had her sharp cheek bones; it gave them a regal look.

Her eyes were rimmed with thick lashes like that of an elf, but her delicate nose was sharper, like a Fae. Her eyes were wide and innocent looking, but hard. A mix of both elvish and Fae. Fae's eyes were cold and distant, but elves have an innocent look since they love pranking people all the time, and they usually get away with it.

Blaze nudged me.

"Is it just me, or does her face confuse you?" She asked. I nodded. Only Fae and Elves have those traits. While humans or supernaturals may have similar looks, they don't have enough roundness or sharpness to their figure. DoubleH, however, was like the perfect mix between Fae and elvish.

Odd. The only bad thing about her face was that it was pretty. Like really pretty. Kaze's face was tight.

When I finished my assessment of her face, I realized that she hadn't answered our question.

"Who are you?" I repeated for the third time. Everyone else was silent, assessing her face. I could tell they were all confused.

She took a deep breath.

"That's the problem. I don't know who I am." She responded.

I'd like to say I took the news well. That I chuckled and told her that everything was alright. Kaze usually did that, but since Jaffa left, he'd been really quiet.

What actually happened was a huge shock of silence, and then Kaze stepping up.

"So you don't know who you are." He stated.

"Correct." She said.

"You don't know what your powers are." He said.

"Yes." She said.

"You need our help to help you defeat Gaea and the Primordial."

"Yes."

"You own Jaffa's cloak."

"Yes."

"You come from Planet Xylos."

She hesitated.

"I don't know." We stared at her.

"Ok, so you don't know who you are what your powers are, and now you're telling us you don't know where you come from?" Kaze demanded.

"My home was Planet Xylos. I just don't think Planet Xylos was my parent's home." She told us.

"So… you're saying…" I began. She finished my thought.

"Yes. I think I'm adopted."

"Crud." Grace said.

We didn't correct her this time either. DoubleH sighed.

"I know. I don't anything about myself. I don't even know who I am. I need your help." She told us. I could tell she was deadly serious.

"We will help." Kaze said. She smiled, and her face became breathtaking.

"Thanks." She said, before walking to one of the walls of the courtyard.

"Follow me." She said, and pressed the side of the courtyard. The wall shimmered, and then a rectangular shape of wall disappeared. There was now a doorway covered with multiple pieces of metal, like spikes. With a single word, the spikes retracted, and opened to a misty doorway.

Then, she slipped through it. We quickly followed. The door led down a long, metal hallway that seemed to go on forever. White mist floated in the air, making everyone look like shadows. I followed the silhouette of Blaze, her spiky hair sticking up in the gloom.

As I looked at the walls, I saw images, like mirages. There was a gorgeous women. Her hair was just like DoubleH's, pure white, silky with ebony highlights. Her hair flowed in thick, loose curls down her back, and side bangs brushed over her face. Her eyes were silver, like Lady Artemis.

They glowed with a supernatural light, almost like a light bulb, but they were t dull to actually light up like DoubleH's had. She had pale eye brows, barely discernible from her pale skin. Her cupid's bow mouth was pink, fixed in a natural pout.

She had on a simple white chiffon dress, the white cloth crossing and forming an "X" over her chest, and knotting behind her neck like a halter top. A golden rope with plush tassels was looped around her waist, and the ends swung slightly as she walked.

Beneath the rope, the cloth fell in an elegant skirt (not puffed out) to her bare feet. On her ankles, there were gold bangles, and on her wrists, there were golden bracelets to. On either of her top arms, there was one of those Egyptian like wraparound bracelets that twined around her arms. They were gold to.

She had on a golden neck lace like choker that had a small pendant, about the size of my fingernail embedded in the center. It seemed like a pearl. The women's hair was twisted around a golden circlet, and then tied in a high ponytail.

In this image, her eyes were wide with terror.

"No!" She screamed, clutching at the air. A cold laugh met her. The sound grated at my nerves.

"Oh, darling, you will never have her." A man appeared. He had on black, tattered robes and shoulder length, black hair. A crown of bones rested on his head, and his pale skin accentuated his green eyes. Yeah, I said green eyes. He had a roman cut face, and his robes were a swirl of people's faces, horror struck.

"Please! My lord." The lady begged.

"No. She is safer here." The man insisted, and for once, I saw a small object in the man's hands. In the crook of his elbow was a young baby, swaddled in black cloth. Her eyes were cerulean. With a green ring around them.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my elbow, and I was yanked back to where I was. It was DoubleH. The mist around me had cleared enough so that I could see everyone's faces. Their looks were unreadable.

"Don't stray from the path. You can get killed or sucked into the paintings. They are really life like aren't they? Just follow the orange line." DoubleH said, gesturing to the floor. With surprise I realized I hadn't noticed it.

What the heck happened? And why hadn't I noticed the line? Who was that lady? And the man? And why were DoubleH's eyes freaking me out?

Shaken, I followed her back, noting that everyone's eyes followed me. A small tug on my elbow caused me to look at Grace.

"Don't do that again. It scared us all; you were like in a trance and zombie walking." She informed me, her eyes betraying her fear.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You just stopped, and then the mist cleared. Then you were like zombie walking to the wall, and you started to fade and shimmer. Your hands started to like melt into the wall. DoubleH had to pull you out." She explained. Then, she walked away.

I kept walking in the mist. Why was I so affected by the images? Didn't anyone else see them? Suddenly, I realized that DoubleH was walking next to me again. She turned to look at me in the eye.

"Did you know?" She asked.

"Know? Know what?" I asked, confused again. Was everything a prank? She sighed.

"No. I thought not. Will, you were born with a gift. A gift that would take great skill to master and great skill to control and use." She said.

"What?" I said.

"William. What you saw in the wall is true. It will come to pass, or it has already passed." DoubleH said, turning to look me in the eye. My mouth dried.

"What?" I asked. Again.

"Will. You are a prophet." She said, still staring at me in the eye.

I was a prophet. A person who saw the future, the destiny of people, the past the present. Anything I wanted to see. Which ment that… that… My mouth dried again as I looked DoubleH in the eyes.

Her grey eyes were the same color as the lady in the vision. The green ring was the same color as the man's eyes. Her hair was the same as the lady's hair. Her face had the slight shape of the man's face, with small features from the lady's. She walked with a lethal grace that let her prowl without sound. Like the man. Her face was pale. Her mouth was like a cupid's bow, pink.

The people I saw were DoubleH's parents.

**MWAHAHA! Evilness… sorry so much for the long, long wait ****L**** I'm really sorry, thanks for the two reviews that gave me the ideas, I OWE YOU A MILLION VIRTUAL COOKIES…. And thanks so much! I love you guys…. I WILL ADD IN OTHER IDEAS LATER :)**

**P.S… I'm going to be gone on Friday through the next Friday…SORRRY ****L**** I'm going to a tournament somewhere, so I'm not going to be home ****L**


	3. OCS!

**Hi guys... I just came back from my totally awesome competition somewhere off in the world where I have to fly, so yeah. we won 5th (whooop whooop) and I need help**

**I NEED OCSSSSSSS :( seriously, my story can't go on without OCs, so if I get at least 1, your next chapter will be up soon... I just need OCS! (please fill out information sheet below)**

**Name:**

**Nickname:**

**Godly Parent:**

**Weapons:**

**Powers:**

**Assassin or Knight?:**

**Personality:**

**Looks like:**

**Body:**

**Likes:**

**Dislikes:**

**Pet(s):**

**Cloak color/favorite color:**

**How did Chaos find him/her:**

**Best at:**

**Worst at:**

**Extra:**


	4. The Girl from the Stars

**Hi guys! Back again… and I thank you all for the OC's ****J**** hope you love the next chappie! Coming up:**

**Chapter… uh… 5? Disclaimer ****J**

**Will POV.**

My first thought was,

"HOLY CRUD. I'm a prophet, and I know what DoubleH's parents look like!"

My second thought was,

"I always knew that." I did, I had always knew I was a prophet.

When I was 5, a couple of years before Chaos recruited me, I remember a man with black hair and green eyes… like Kaze's eyes.

"What do you see?" He asked. I stared at him before screwing up my eyes. Suddenly, I wasn't with the man anymore. I was watching him walking down the beach, white foam lapping the shores to his feet. A golden trident with black outlining was clasped in his hand.

A women with long, wavy brown hair and sparkling blue eyes waved at him down the length of the beach, and the man smiled.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then everything wavered like water, and rippled into reality. The man seemed satisfied, and walked away. My mom came outside a couple minutes later to find myself drawing his face in the sand.

A few years after that, I was watching the pond at my old school, and I saw a red Nissan fly off a road, and crashed to the ground. That night, I discovered that a red Nissan had been discovered off the edge of Magnolia St, right where I had seen it fall.

Holy crud. I'm a prophet.

Suddenly, I realized that I was at the end of the tunnel; everyone else was gathered around DoubleH who was a few feet from me.

"Alyss?" **(MAH NEW OC! Er… Everlastingice277's OC ****J**** plus… I LOVE RANGERS APPRENTICE! Alyss +Will FOREVAHHHHH)**

A 17 year old girl with perfectly straight, silky black hair that flowed to her waist stepped out of the shadows. She had gorgeous amber eyes; faceted like amethysts or some kind of gem. She had a rich, light, mocha color and a cat like face. Then, her eyes seemed to change to a purplish color, then to lilac

Her eyes were up tilted like a cat's and were lined with black eyeliner. Her mouth fell into an easy pout, and she was about 5'5. Her body was curvy, yet slender. She had on a dark purple cape that complimented her eyes.

She was barefoot, and underneath the cloak, she had on a one strap chiffon. There was a golden brooch with an amethysts in the center on the strap. The dress fell to her waist where a leather belt with two dagger sheaths on either side. The dress fell to her knees, and was kind of swishy, but wouldn't give anyone a peek if she jumped on something or ran really fast.

The dagger sheathes were empty. On her wrists, there were two matching bracelets, like one of those Egyptian ones that curled around your arm. They had pearls for eyes. She looked like an Egyptian princess, her regal face regarding us with an unnerving look.

Her eyes seemed to see into my soul. She paused her eyes on me longer than anyone else, and then slowly nodded.

"You are from Chaos." She said. Then, I realized her cape was made in the Chaos assassin fashion, like nay normal cloak, but the cloak seemed to lightly shimmer, and blend into the background. So light, no one ever noticed except for top assassins and knights, but to me, it was obvious.

"You are to." Kaze acknowledged. DoubleH smiled.

"Chaos knights and assassins, meet Alexandra Alyssa Avalon. Daughter of Poseidon." She announced. Alexandra didn't even smile.

"Call me Alyss." She said simply

"Alyss was a Chaos assassin like some of you. She was found when she was running from a pack of 6 to 7 hellhounds, a couple of years after she was kicked out of the house for fear of monsters when she was 5. She didn't train at the Chaos fort though, Chaos decided to let her train on her own because she was so independent and because she wanted to." DoubleH said. Alyss nodded her head.

"I have a seeker." She added in, before falling silent. Well. Wasn't she a bucket of sunshine.

"A seeker is a pet, or a familiar. They help us channel our magic sometimes, and give us advice." DoubleH explained.

"What is your seeker?" I asked. Her eyes turned to me. There was a mysterious, knowing look in them. Like she knew everything that had happened to me. It was creepy.

"My cat." She said, just as a midnight black kitten about the size of a tissue box prowled out of the mist. It was pure black, and short haired; like a witch's cat. The only thing was that its eyes were exactly like Alyss's.

The cat purred, and leaped with inhuman agility onto Alyss's shoulders.

"What are your powers?" Grace asked.

"Forms of water. Like ice or water." Was the short answer. Interesting. Kaze's power was in most of the water power areas, but he wasn't very good at formation. Formation was when you could form different types of water; like making ice crystals, or melting ice without a second thought. It's a whole lot different than earthquakes.

You see… I'm obviously a son of Poseidon, and making earthquakes require a large amount of energy and rage or a strong emotion. Formation requires a huge amount of concentration, quick thinking, and endurance.

"Weapons?" Jace asked.

In response, she threw her hands up like she was holding a lunch tray, and then slid her hands back down quickly. In her hands were golden twin knives, razor sharp and in perfect condition. I realized her bracelets were gone.

"Nice." Leo said.

"We have to get going." DoubleH said, and Alyss twisted her wrists. With a soft _snick_, the blades formed into bracelets again. As we walked on through the hallway, Alyss slowed down to walk with me.

"You are a prophet." She said. It sounded so simple and casual, like she was commenting on the weather.

"So I've heard." I replied. She looked at me.

"Most people find me cold and distant. They think that I am to quiet. You aren't. You are… very… bright." She said. I paused for a moment, and then said,

"Bright?" She smiled slightly and laughed a little.

"I mean, you're aura is bright. I can see your power. It's like moonlight; soft and calm, yet strong and unwavering." She said. I looked at her.

"You seem to like moonlight." I said.

"Yes. I like moonlight; it isn't harsh like the sun, it sooths your skin; yet it lights your way. My blades are gold though. Like the sun. I guess I want a little sunlight in my life." She said.

"Yes. You seem skilled with your blades." I agreed.

"I like practicing." She said simply. I found it hard to see that this easy going girl, talking like she hadn't a care in the world was just a few moments ago giving us the cold shoulder.

"Night is very quiet." I said.

"Yes." She said quietly.

"One of the things I enjoy so much about being alone. I don't like loud noises." I nodded.

Then, I saw that we were in a cavern. The cave was lit though, with an iridescent glow; like moonlight. I smiled.

"Your home." I guessed.

"Home sweet home." She agreed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pool of water in the center of the tavern. I walked to it slowly. Alyss kept pace with me.

When I looked into the water, I realized we were standing on a rocky kind of coral; layers of rocky, jutting coral layered down into the gloom. A ball of shining seaweed was floating in the middle, lighting up the water and the cave with silver moonlight. The water was calm, and the pool was about 3 to 4 feet wide.

I watched the calm water, and before my eyes, it rippled and showed images; visions.

Alyss slicing her combat knives; leaping with the grace of a cat while her seeker traveled through the shadows.

DoubleH crying at the pool; kneeling right where I was sitting.

DoubleH's father standing along on top of a craggy hill, lightning illuminating his form; his face twisted into a look of agony and fury.

Us. The battle raging around the knights and assassins as we fought. Kaze formed tidal waves to surf on. Alyss leaped agilely from ledge to ledge on the cliffs. I myself was forming water shields and swinging my sword.

Then, the Earth's crust opened, and inside… inside was…

Then, I was back in the cave, Alyss was kneeling beside me. The water was calm again. I stared for a long time. I felt cold and clammy; like my insides were frozen and were thawing out right this second.

"It's ok." Alyss said quietly. I knew she knew what I had seen. I took a deep breath. DoubleH lightly touched my shoulder. I knew that everyone was looking at me. What had DoubleH said?

A gift that would take great skill to master and great skill to control and use.

I slowly stood up. Alyss supported me as we walked in silence through the cave.

"Your rooms." DoubleH said, before leaving us in a hallway. It was made of stone, but was lit with moonlight, and had a soft, fluffy feeling, not hard and rough like the impending stone.

I eased into a room. The inside was somehow magically made so that saltwater flowed up to my thighs, yet didn't seem very difficult to wade in. Instead, it was light and feathery. Ocean life swam beneath the water; a long mako shark nuzzled my heel before leaving in sight of food.

On the walls, sea shells decorated the sandy granite, and my bed was perched in a clam shell. How cliché is that?

Even so, the clam seemed alive, but the bed was a nice seaweed green and was plush. The pillows were in the shape of scallops, and they were a teal-ish sea blue color. The blanket was thick and plush; the top was striped with the sea blue and teal, while the rest was the color of sea green; lighter than the seaweed green, but not lime.

I fell onto the bed and Alyss flopped down next to me. She wasn't wet either. My room, like everything else was lit with the silver seaweed growing everywhere in the room.

"What was that?" I croaked when I finally felt in control of my body.

"That was the pool of tears. It brings sadness, yet hope. Most people find visions there. Will. You need to learn how to control your visions or they might drive you mad. They can fill you up, make you obsessed with them. They can distract you. You need to learn control." Alyss said. Her purple eyes looked up at me.

"Promise me you will." She whispered. I could only nod.

"I'll leave you for now. Thai will need rest for now." She said, gesturing to her cat which had shadow traveled to my bed. I nodded, and she slogged out of my room.

The next few days I walked around like I was in a trance. Alyss helped me control visions, and helped me learn more about them.

"I think your gift only works with water." She told me once I had informed her about all my past visions. "You need to concentrate on the water, imagine the water rippling, and then once it has cleared, it shows what you want it to show. Concentrate and try to imagine something… umm… do that book over there."

It helped that she had the gift of seeing visions with a special sight her cat allowed her. I imagined the book, and thought of its image imprinted on the water… like its physical image was knitting with the water. The water rippled, and I saw a vague picture of the book before it vanished.

"No good. You need to also focus on making sure no one else can see the vision. Imagine a long, narrow tube that channels the picture from your mind to the water. I can see the vision without my cat's magic." Alyss instructed, and I once again, set to work.

At dinner, lunch, and breakfast, everyone cast small glances at me, wondering why Alyss and DoubleH spent so much time with me. Indeed, Alyss hadn't even thought about acting nice to anyone else. She only truly felt what I felt, and was one of my friends. In fact, her real personality was completely different from the cold shoulder everyone else received.

She was bubbly, and happy, but not like a perky cheerleader. She was more kind and nice. She had a warm, soothing voice and understood anything. Also, she could bring a smile to anyone's face.

During the mornings, I would work with DoubleH with developing my visions while Alyss pushed me in the afternoons with doing the visions. DoubleH also worked with everyone else, helping them adjust to things and helping their powers. When we asked about when the campers would arrive, she snapped her fingers and we all were sent to Camp Half-Blood… which is where I am right now.

Annabeth, who, for some strange reason, went back to normal, welcomed us.

Chiron had informed us that we had left, the remnants of Jaffa's powers had filled everyone, and Annabeth had changed. She got kicked out of the Mark/Adam/Samantha posse. Now, she knew where to place her feet.

She was nice to us and always helped us out. She still missed Percy, but knew he wasn't the one for her, and they were really good friends now. She led hunts for monsters, led quests, and also researched odd things for us. Today, she grinned excitedly and waved as we arrived.

"Hey! What are you guys here for?" She asked before realizing that DoubleH and Alyss were there.

"Umm… hi." She said awkwardly. I read her mind, a handy thing to do since I was a son of Poseidon. The brain is filled with water, so we can catch a few words here and there. It was obvious that with Jaffa's cloak on and with a figure similar to Jaffa's, DoubleH could have been her twin if not for the obvious hair differences and personality differences.

Annabeth had been quite rude to Jaffa when they were first acquaintances. I decided to introduce them.

"Annabeth, meet DoubleH. She stepped in and took Jaffa's job when she… died. We just met a couple of weeks ago. DoubleH, meet Annabeth, the former girlfriend of Kaze." I said. DoubleH smiled.

"Don't worry. I don't hold you for the things you did in the past." She said like she had known all along. DoubleH was unnerving like that. Annabeth's eyebrows shot up and she looked questioningly at us. We all shrugged our shoulders.

"Who's that?" Annabeth asked, nodding to Alyss.

"My name isn't important." Alyss said quietly. Campers were gathering now. Chiron cantered up to us.

"Knights! Assassins! Welcome!" He exclaimed. DoubleH smiled at him.

"DoubleH." She introduced herself. Chiron's eyes widened.

"Ah yes… you look so much like…" He began.

"Like Jaffa? Yes. I get that a lot." She sighed. Alyss hid a smile.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the poor wittle knights back from Chaos." I heard. Mark sauntered in with Adam and Samantha.

"Go to Tartarus, Mark." DoubleH snapped. I stifled a laugh. The past few weeks, everyone had been surprised at how… ah, blunt DoubleH was. When we had first met, she was powerful, beyond us, mysterious, but now… god, it was hilarious. She frequently made random speeches, acted like Anna, one of the assassins, and liked telling people to go to Tartarus… or other things like that.

Mark took a step back.

"How do you know my name?" He demanded. She shrugged.

"I know plenty of things." She said mysteriously. Kaze stepped up.

"Listen up campers, the Primordials are rising, and we need your help. This is DoubleH, an assassin whom has decided to help us. She had taken over Jaffa's job of assassinating all the uh… bad guys, and we have currently met over the past week. Anyone who wants to join line up." Kaze announce. Annabeth immediately raised her dagger, and stepped over to us.

"I join." She announced. The Elite campers, Clarisse, Grover, Marcus (Ares), Bruce (Athena), J.C (Demeter), Conner and Travis Stoll, Katie Gardner, Dwyer (Apollo), Frank, Hazel, and Justin (Hermes), all stepped forward.

"We join." They announced. Adam sneered.

"Yeah? What are you going to do? Die like that silly Jaffa?" He demanded. In a flash, Kaze had him pinned.

"Listen carefully." He said in a controlled voice.

"Jaffa was not only one of the most powerful beings on the planet; she was once your girlfriend. Does that strike you memory? Don't you remember the girl whom you cheated on with Samantha? Huh? The girl who was mistreated by you, and left camp to join Chaos? Do you remember?" Kaze demanded harshly, shaking Adam like a rag doll.

The camp was silent for once. Jaffa was once Adam's girlfriend? Talk about bad taste. Samantha gasped. Kaze turned on her.

"Yes. Your wittle, little friend was the very girl who came back to camp and kicked your butt, Samantha. You little friend who had a boyfriend that you cheated on with. Don't you remember her? Don't you remember her saving the camp and saving your butts? Do you?" He said coldly.

No one knew what to do. When Kaze was in a rage, Jaffa was always there to soothe him. Now, everyone who approached him was almost literally landed in the hospital. Sometimes, though, Kaze overshot and they landed somewhere outside the Chaos forts.

Suddenly, a movement caught my attention from the corner of my eyes. Alyss swiftly walked over to Kaze, and touched his arm. He dropped Adam, and spun around at full speed at Alyss. She was too quick though, and had his arms behind his back.

"Calm down." She said coldly. Kaze was breathing heavily now. Tears streamed down his face.

"Stars." He said like it was the last thing in the world.

"Stars." She agreed. Kaze sagged against her frame, and sobbed his heart out. This was the most unexpected thing we had ever seen. Kaze never cried, never felt pain. Not after what had happened back at camp.

Alyss held his lean figure, and turned to me for help. I instantly jogged over and helped her carry Kaze. I looked at his tears, and wondered what the stars meant.

The tears shimmered, and I saw a girl wearing silver clothes with 4 other people. The other girl dressed in shimmery clothes had dark hair and looked like Fear. Kaze… a much younger Kaze was also with them along with Grover and Blaze.

When the girl with silver clothes turned, I saw that it was a girl who looked like Alyss. I shook my head, and looked at Alyss. Her eyes were fastened on me like she knew that I had seen that vision. Kaze slumped against us.

"Stars." He repeated before we managed to transport him back to the Portal… the place where DoubleH was hiding out.

Then, he shimmered and disappeared. We turned to find everyone watching us.

Annabeth stepped to us.

"Not to be rude, but I think we need to know your name. You name and what the significance of stars are." She said.

Alyss sighed, and I gave her an encouraging look.

"Why?" She asked, petulantly like a little child, but the ice in her voice made it seem more mature.

I rolled my eyes.

"Don't mind her. She's terrible at being social. And yes, you have to introduce yourself." I added at Alyss. She sighed.

"I'm Alyss." Alyss said, flipping back her hood. Everyone from the past years and Greek camp gasped. Annabeth stepped forward.

"Zoë?"

**MEHEHEHEHE! I'm so evil… thanks so much for the OCs, the next one will be in future chapter… but I need a variety… NO MORE POSEIDON SPAWNS. ****J**** sorry for the long wait… the next one will probably take forever to write...**** sorry. IT'S CAUSE OF MY EVIL TEACHERS! And homework :)**** Thanks so much for the new OCS! Please send more of them :)**

**PS... my next chapter will take forever to write, so I would appreciate it if you guys don't pressure me so much on typing it up... it's 9 freaking pages on word! So... luv yall!**


	5. The Truth Comes Out

**MEHEHEHEHE! I'm so evil… thanks so much for the OCs, the next one will be in future chapter… but I need a variety… NO MORE POSEIDON SPAWNS. ****J**** sorry for the long wait… the next one will probably take forever to ****L**** sorry. IT'S CAUSE OF MY EVIL TEACHERS! And homework ****L**** Thanks so much for the new OCS! Please send more ****J**

**Ok… finally Chapter 4 that I know you've all been waiting for ****J**** Alright… sorry for the cliffie, and well… LUV YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ****J**** thanks for the support and the time and I hope you like this story. Let's just say I've decide to get rid of my plot and go with the flow which isn't actually a good thing, but meh. Deal with it ****J**

**Will POV**

There was a dead silence. Who was this Zoë? Alyss shuffled her feet a bit.

"No… I'm not Zoë. She was my… sister. I was the eldest, born before all of them. When they were all 3, I realized that Zoë was the only daughter like me. My father didn't understand, he was too busy scheming and plotting with Gaea.

I decided to run away, as I had attempted many times. If not for the need to hold the sky, I would have died. I ran away, and landed myself in an orphanage where I was adopted, and then chased by hellhounds. I was only 7.

Chaos found me and gave me immortal aging, and I left to find my place in the world. You do not know of me because I'm not of the Hesperides. My mother was… unknown. I wish to know, but I do not know."

Alyss said. Zoë. Stars… was that the huntress that was in the stars? Zoë? Annabeth frowned.

"but… no…αδύνατος! That isn't possible!" She exclaimed before running off to find something. I hid a smile. That was the actual Annabeth… not the sneering girl who cheated on Kaze.

"So." Adam said, and we all turned to him.

"You aren't a hunter?" He said. Alyss's eyes flared. Of all the things Adam had to say… that was it? With catlike grace, Alyss strode up to Adam, proving she was at least 5 or 6 inches taller than him which was very, very sad.

"I'm not a hunter, no, but you must watch your mouth or one day, you will find your tongue gone." She said before snapping out her blades.

"And these will prove to do the job." She finished, before looking at me with a disgusted look on her face. I shrugged, and motioned my hands to say that Adam was just like that. She stuck her tongue out at me. Then, she let go of him, and stalked back to us.

Summoning a water portal, I quickly teleported everyone to their rooms in DoubleH's hideout. There, Alyss and I grabbed Kaze, and dragged him to the pool of tears.

The pool of tears was a pool of memories. Sad memories. Those who shed a tear or touched the water gave off memories, but over time, all the memories slid together. It took concentration and skill to sift through the memories to find certain ones. You could also see visions in the water.

Kaze's tears fell into the pool, and I stared at the water.

A girl… strikingly beautiful, was standing on top of a hill. Everything was black. It was like the stereotypical everything's-burnt-and-black-and-everyone's-dead type of thing. The ground was black and cracked. Soot filled the air. Black smog and smoke filled the air. There was a tinge of red to the mist.

The girl was tall. Tall enough to be DoubleH's height. She was slim and curvy. Suddenly, a crack of sound so loud, I was sure it came behind me, whipped through the air. I almost jumped, but realized that the sound came from the vision. A black tendril slammed towards the girl who nimbly jumped out of the way.

Her technique was familiar, but not of Chaos origin. Did I know her? No. It wasn't possible. She wasn't form the Chaos forts, her style was different from anyone I had seen, and I specialized in that. The black thing lifted and was lashed towards the girl again. She slapped it away.

My whole form shuddered. Who was that girl?

Suddenly, I felt Alyss's hand on my shoulder. Glancing up at her, I saw the grave look on her face.

It took a couple of seconds for me to make any sound

"You know her?" I whispered, my voice raspy.

She nodded. Then she sighed.

"Get Kaze to his room. We have a lot of work to do."

**Mystery POV**

Something was there... on the edges of my vision, just out of reach.

I whirled, but nothing was there. A cold laugh filled the air. I knew he was just playing with me. the barren land was silent, still. it was to silent. Shadows loomed in front of me, and there was nothing that could hide me.

black smoke hung in the air, making everything muggy and hot. My lungs screamed for air.

"You are brave, young one." The harsh voice conceded, the sound grating on my nerves.

"Maybe I will let you go unscathed. Maybe." Then he… it, whatever it was, laughed again, mockingly. I gritted my teeth until I was sure I had cracked a molar.

I hated being ostracized. I hated being treated as weak. I hated being wrong, and I hated that voice. There were a lot of things to hate in this world, and this made the top three. First of all, I was being ostracized. That voice was ostracizing me, and that voice was telling me I was weak. And worst of all, that voice was right.

The thick cape on my shoulders suddenly seemed heavy. The air became more humid and muggy, the air becoming so thick, I could hardly breathe. Shreds of mist hung in the air like tattered clothing.

A black spike lashed out at me. I slapped it away, and leaped nimbly over it. The black smog was blinding me, filling my senses. It was like walking into a small, enclosed room with incense and smoke in the air right after a long, hard run. There was you, gasping for air, and then there was you in an enclosed space with thick, fragrant smoke filling your nose and making you drowsy. It didn't help that you were claustrophobic.

"Just give up." The voice snarled, and the black spike whipped back out at me. The end, tapering into a rapier sharp point, made a cracking noise. It was a whip, I realized; a freaking whip that was about a couple thousand sizes larger than a normal one.

The whip came at me again, and I smacked it away, but not before the end lashed back, and sliced my cheek. The force was so strong, the end sliced through my brow bone to the top of my cheek bone, making a slash mark across my right eye.

"Gah!" blood poured form the wound, and I wasn't sure if my eye had been spared from blindness.

"Hmmm… not so fast are you?" The voice taunted before the whip came at me again. Half blinded by the blood, I didn't see the black whip until it had wrapped around my ankle. I stumbled to my knees. The air crackled with triumph.

"At last." The voice crowed. I bowed my head, waiting for the final blow. Even I knew that I would only have a few more seconds of life… until the imminent death awaiting me.

**Alyss POV**

How was it possible? I shook my head as I strode down the corridor. Will was taking Percy to his room. I frowned as I reached the visual room. I really hated doing this.

The visual room was like an IM room only 10 times stronger and faster. Iris messaging was actually quite fun in this room.

With a snap of my fingers, the IM fountain rose out of the ground.

I took a deep breath. Desperate times came for desperate measures.

"Skylar Montrey (pronounced mon- tree)"

The fountain rumbled, and then I saw her. She was my half-sister since her father was also Poseidon. DoubleH had met her and knew who she was, but she hadn't revealed her to the knights or assassins. Sky was another assassin.

We had both met when we were on the run. Her family had abandoned her, and I was being chased by hellhounds. We fought them off before Chaos arrived. She and I had been partners, I fought with the raw element of water while she commanded weaponry. She had the natural skill and instinct over weapons, and somehow her water power allowed her access to powerful weapons. Still, she was awful at archery like most Poseidon children were like.

She was corrupted by another one of my partners, Eta. He convinced her to join Gaea and fight with her powers. He tore us apart. She thought he loved her.

Then, when Jaffa came, Eta left Sky completely heart broken. She and I had made a fragile friendship, both of us to scared and cautious to come even closer. Still, when the time came, we were usually allies.

After Eta, Sky was completely crushed, she didn't know who to trust, who would betray her, or who she could trust. In the beginning, she was kind and loving, like a sister. I hated Eta for what he did to her, but I hadn't heard hide nor hair of him.

What was worse was that Sky could fly by manipulating the water evaporation in the sky. I could also, but not for as long as Sky. When Eta left Sky, she had a freak out, threw herself off a building and almost killed herself. Now, she was scared to even think of flying although she could still do it.

Sky's face appeared in the fountain.

"Alyss." She said, smiling slightly. Her black hair swished over her shoulder, contrasting with her sea green eyes. Like Percy's hair and eyes. Oddly, though, it confused me that Will, my trainee, a son of Poseidon, had blond hair and blue eyes. He even specialized in archery. He was the complete opposite of a son of Poseidon, but his powers of prophecy proved him of the heritage.

"Sky." I said nodding my head.

"How is Yaz?" Yaz was Skylar's pet wolf, her familiar.

In response, a low growl came from behind Sky who turned, her blue green cape, which was almost like teal, flowing behind her. The cape accentuated her slender frame which reminded me of how athletic and sporty she was. She constantly obsessed over soccer and other things.

"Good." She said.

"Great. Sky I need a favor." I said. She paused and looked at me.

"Yes?"

"Look up Zoë Nightshade, lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. If that doesn't work, can you look up the Hesperides old ancient history?" I asked. Sky chewed at her lip.

"I don't think I need to look anything up." She began.

"I remember, Zoë. She was your favorite sister wasn't she? Yes… and she served at Artemis's side. You ran away when she was 3, right after teaching her how to control Landon. She didn't remember you because of her young age. She believed that she was the only Hesperides to go away from her family after being betrayed by Hercules.

Hercules then afterwards married a daughter of Poseidon and was gifted with immortal power of the sea. His wife's child received half of the power, making him a half blood… or at least, very close to a half blood. That's all I remember." Sky said, frowning as she tried to remember more.

"That's great Sky." I said swallowing.

"But one last question; what were the powers gifted to the child, and describe to me what Hercules and his wife looked like."

"Umm… let's see, prophecy, power of the tides, basic Earthquake god powers… yeah, that it for the powers, and Hercules was really big and muscled obviously, and he had black hair and blue eyes like Zeus. His wife was said to be very pretty and had blond hair and blue eyes…. Hey! Where're you going?"

Sky shouted the last bit to me as I stalked out of the visual room.

"Thanks for the help Sky! I have what I need." I called back. I needed to talk to Will. And tell him that he was the descendant of Zeus and Hercules.

**Mystery POV**

As soon as the room was cloaked in darkness except for the small patch of light in the center of the room, my mistress came.

"Are you ready?" She hissed, her smooth voice becoming cracked in the stress of communicating with me.

"Yes. Everything is in place, my lady." I replied, bowing my head.

"Good. See to it that the captive is treated… properly." She said with relish. I hid a smile.

"Yes. She will have the best welcome in the ages." I said, my head still bowed.

Her ice cold fingers brushed over the back of my neck.

"I trust you." She murmured. I nodded.

"And I keep your trust." I acknowledged. She sighed, her ice cold breath stirring the air in the room.

"My time comes, be ready when they are." She said.

"Yes my lady." I said. The sharp tug to my gut ensured that she had broken contact. The lights slowly brightened.

Looking at the lab around me, I could help by smirk.

"Computer. Load up." I said. The whirring of the computer appeared behind me.

The virtual voice of our systems began.

"Load up complete." I turned. Logging into the system, I thought for a minute and smiled.

"Access the files of Xylene Rase. I want a complete overview."

"Files Accessed." The computer hummed. I smiled and settled down into the seat in front of the computer.

"We'll see how you fare, my friend, when your best warriors are not there to save you." I said confidently, tapping away.

Brushing the long black strands of my hair out of my face, I smoothed the edge of my teal cape, and smiled.

"Hail Nyx."

**Jaffa POV (Finally… you get to know what happened to Jaffa… is this her ghost… or is she alive :) )**

I hissed angrily at the sphere of black energy surrounding me. The warped power formed a netted cage around me as the magic flowed from strand to strand of the fibers.

Being imprisoned was not the best thing to happen. I wasn't at full strength, so I couldn't break the shield. Even if I did, there was nowhere to go. A cold laugh echoed behind me.

"I wouldn't try escaping, Jaffa, not since I brought you to life, and with my defeat, will cause your death, so don't try using your powers." I turned. A cloaked man stood. His whip was coiled in his hand. The happiness in his voice told me that he had a good hunting today.

"Who was it today?" I demanded.

"A girl… sadly, though, she was just to wild. I had to kill her." The man said nonchalantly. I wanted to pound him.

Even though I was an assassin, I didn't kill innocent people. I killed the bad guys. And most chose to either go quietly with me and become good, or fight. It wasn't my fault they always chose the rules, 'Victory by death.' Well… I might have magically persuaded some of them, but not all of them.

I leaned against the wall, the black magic zapping me sharply before realizing I wasn't trying to escape.

"What do you want anyways?" I asked for the ten thousandth time.

The man stood silently. For once, he responded.

"You are the key. Without you, they are doomed." Then, he swished away.

I groaned frustratedly before leaning onto the floor. Concentrating every inch of my magic on the passageway in my head, I mentally walked down that pathway.

This was dream walking. Being the daughter of Hyperion ensured that I had some powers over fire and electronic pulses, including those in the brain. By imagining a type of passageway that lead to all these other brains, I could, in effect, read the persons mind, hurt them mentally, persuade them mentally, and other things.

Opening the door to Will's brain, I gently walked inside. Mental Will met me.

Even though he didn't realize it, he was subconsciously creating his own passageway and mental person.

"What?" He asked. I looked at him. At his level of skill and practice, he couldn't see what I looked like, and he probably didn't even recognize me without my cloak.

"Will… You see this as a vision. I came to tell you something. Trust only the assassins and knights in your Chaos fort only. Don't trust newcomers, and don't trust anyone else except Alyss, and DoubleH." I pressed my gift into his hand.

"Use this ring. Never take it off, or you will be in grave danger. When you are in need, merely heat up the gem in the center. To break connection, freeze it. Trust me Will." I whispered before leaving him. My last sight of him as his face, confused, shocked, cautious.

I appeared in the black shell of energy again. Groaning, I curled up and slept.

**Will POV**

Another dream. After walking Kaze to his room, I crashed and slept. I shuddered remembering the mysterious girl's hands on mine. What had she said?

"Will… You see this as a vision. I came to tell you something. Trust only the assassins and knights in your Chaos fort only. Don't trust newcomers, and don't trust anyone else except Alyss, and DoubleH."

Why…. Then, I realized that the gift she had given me was in my hand. I looked down at it and almost died. Suddenly, the door slammed open. Alyss hurtled into the room.

"Will!" She exclaimed. I snapped out of it.

"Yes?" I asked. Curious knight and assassin faces were peeking in through the door.

"Will… we need to talk." Alyss said urgently. I nodded slowly.

"Yes… we do." I agreed, showing her the ring in my hand. Her face turned white.

"Isn't that…" She whispered. I nodded.

"Yes… we need to talk."

**10 minutes later...**

I pressed my gift into my hand.

Walking to the meeting room, I kept my hands tightly around the ring. The gem glinted in the dim lighting. The girl's words swirled in my head.

"Trust me Will… Use this ring… You will be in grave danger… trust no one." Her voice… it was so familiar; how could I not have noticed? Alyss walked alongside me, her head bowed, her lips pursed in thought.

Once we reached the meeting room, Kaze, who was now in control of himself, raised a hand.

"Beauty Queen informed me of your outburst a couple of minutes ago." He began. Alyss cut in.

"Wait… Will. Afterwards, we need to meet in private." She looked at me. I nodded.

"Ok guys, I've been having dreams… " I began, looking at Kaze for support. He was the expert on dreams. He nodded at me to continue.

"And, um, someone began to visit me, and I began having visions. It's definitely a "her", and she is so familiar, but I just… didn't know who she was. I have a hunch now." I said. Kaze nodded slowly.

"Continue…" He murmured. I leaned forward.

"Here's my proof." I said, displaying the ring on my hand. The room darkened about 10 degrees. Everyone stared in silence at the ring. Finally, DoubleH broke the silence.

"Oh. My. Crud. How did you get that?" **(A.N… I once said "Oh. My. Crap." One time, and for some reason, my friends found it hilariously funny. I never understood it, but, meh. Here it is.)**

That broke the tension in the room, and instantly, Grace leaned across to have a better look at it.

"That's impossible… It couldn't have happened." She whispered. I shrugged my shoulders.

"That's what I told myself when the mystery girl gave me the ring. But now… It feels real. It looks real. It even is the real copy." I said.

"Impossible!" Fear exclaimed.

"The last person who owned it…" He broke off. For a moment, there was silence. Then, Alyss began to talk.

"No. Will is right." She said. The certain tone of voice caused us all to look at her.

"How?" Kaze asked uncertainly. Alyss took a deep breath.

"I… had to talk to a… colleague, and she is a daughter of Poseidon, but she is also very smart. And she said…. She said…" Alyss paused, and shook her head slowly. Looking up and grinning at me, she finished.

"She said you were the son of Hercules and daughter of Poseidon."

And just like that…. My world was plunged into chaos.

**FINALLY! The next chapter done… sorry for the long wait, but it would be so much easier if you guys told me what you thought; not just "Update sooner!" because it doesn't show how much you appreciate my time and work… I just feel like you want the story only, and I really want your feedback; what you're thinking. Anyways, I'm going to be going to a MAJOR competition for like…. A week or so, so don't expect me to update any sooner…**


	6. The Whole Story

**Back again… after the extremely long wait! School is over, and I hope I can be of service again! Anyways, I know you guys are ready to kill me for the terrible long wait, but then you will never get your finished sequel! Speaking of which… I need your feedback desperately. All I get are people reading my story. Please review or do something… like vote on my polls… whatever it takes!**

_Xylene Raze_

_ - Gender: Female, 13_

- _Bloodline: half phoenix_

_ - Parents: Hyperion and…_

- _Weapons: Dagger, sword, wrist shields, claws_

- _Rank: 1st lieutenant/ Personal assassin of Chaos _

- _Looks: black hair with silver streaks. Usually in a ponytail. She wears color contacts that are so specialized, they look like an actual eye color to the untrained eye. Her contacts are usually brown, and are made to change to different shades of brown to go with her emotions. Her eyes are multiple colors, but are usually a very light, striking blue that gives her a very intense look, or a light silvery lilac that has the same intensity as the blue. Her eyes change to white, black, purple, blue, green, basically any color though it mostly stays on the cold color side. She has tan skin, and is very athletic._

- _Favorite Saying: Some people say that the glass is half empty; some people say the glass is half full, but all I want to know is, who keeps drinking my darn water._

- _Past experiences: Once was a huntress, saved the immortals from an uprising from titans, and completed the 11 labors of Hercules_

- _Specialties: Blocking arrows, bullets, etc. with wrist shield, sneaking up unheard and unseen, acrobatics, speed, and mysteriousness_

- _Notes: this girl can beat you up in .5 seconds. She stays away from boys, and well… she is really good at sword fighting. She is skilled with her dagger, and bow and arrow, and her claws. Deflecting missiles or sword thrusts is nothing, and she is mysterious… no one knows who her mom is; preferable Demeter_

**Mystery Person**

The computer recited the data monotonously… well, it had to; it was robotic. I pondered the data thoughtfully.

Xylene Rase. Xylene Rase. Xylene Rase.

The name repeated in my head, echoing. My fists curled as I thought of her. Her hooded face turned haughtily away from me. The way _he _looked at her. The way_ he _wanted her. I hated her.

CRACK! The arm rests on the chair I was sitting in cracked from the pressure of my fingers. When I removed my hands, I could see the indents each finger made.

Growling with anger, I swung myself out of the chair and paced back and forth. Inside my head, I could hear my patrons voice cackling.

"See how much better than you she is?" She taunted. My lips curled. No matter how much I yearned for it, I could never snap back at my patron. That, she had taught me. Again, I wished that Xylene was dead.

_It's ok… _my mind chanted, _don't think of her, just don't think of her. Think of what you will have when you triumph over her… think of the deaths she will cause, the destruction._

Another image of her innocent, smiling face popped into my head instead.

_ARGH!_

**Jaffa POV**

I woke up again to find "Creepy wannabe grim reaper" guy staring at me through the energy of my sphere again. His pale; almost see through skin and bright eyes that glittered with raw power sent chills down my spine, though I hadn't shown it then.

Now, I hardly noticed them. Grumpily glaring at him beneath my fringe of side bangs, I snippily asked,

"What now?" He continued staring at me. I was starting to get afraid that I was his new obsession, his new prized possession.

Then, abruptly, he turned. He turned and walked away. I hated it when he did that. Sighing, I looked towards the top of my caged dome.

I hope you're doing better than me, William. I thought, before the shock of dying, being resurrected, being captured, having little to no rest at all, caused me to lose consciousness.

At least, that had to be the reason. It was either that, or the fact that the CWGR (creepy wannabe grim reaper) had slipped tranquilizers into my food.

Wait… What the…

Those were the only three words that managed to get through the delirious haze in my mind before I blacked out for good.

**Will POV**

A blurring, shocking wave of emotion crashed over me. My hands were numb, possibly shaking. My mind reeled. White threatened to overtake my mind, barely held back from the corners of my eyes. My mouth gaped open, my eyes popped out… I was sure that I looked comical.

Everyone's faces blurred together, their looks of shock twisted into a smear in the back ground. Each blink sent spirals of color into my brain, the faces of everyone imprinted on the back of my eyelids. The wave of white trembled, slowly fighting my weak barrier that was holding it at bay. Any second, and it would crash.

It would crash and I knew that if it did, I wouldn't remember. I wouldn't remember what I had been told. That was enough to sustain me long enough to clutch Alyss's hands. Her calming aura helped me push back the wave, leaving behind a shore of wreckage in my mind.

Blindly, I slowly navigated myself through the wreckage. My whole body felt numb as the waves rushed out with the tide. I opened my eyes.

I was standing still at the message room, my hands grasping Alyss's. I let out the deep breath I hadn't known I had been holding. Calmly, slowly, I looked at Alyss and said in the most even voice possible,

"Do you mind telling me the whole story?" Alyss's uptilted, catty eyes flickered an odd emotion, something I couldn't place, before she nodded.

Slowly removing her hand from my tight grasp, she began.

"I guess I better start from the beginning. When I was very young, Zoë, my younger sister and I were much alike in the way that we had our own thoughts of the world. I taught Zoë how to control Landon out of spite for my father and other sisters.

I left then, when she was three, for my father's rage was great, and my sisters' words were like whips. I believe that I had been blotted out like Zoë, explaining why she didn't remember me at an older age. I met up with DoubleH and a girl named Sky Montrey who is… was, my half sister.

You see, my real father is Poseidon, but my mother is Pleione, and since she isn't well known, and because I had somehow inherited genes from both my father and mother to make me the exact copy of Atlas's children, I became known as one of his daughters at that time.

When I left, and met Sky and DoubleH, we became a group. Like a trio. Same as you, Percy, Thalia, Nico. We fought together. Laughed together. Hid together. Loved together. It was perfect.

I should have known it wouldn't have lasted.

Years later, we met Eta. I know you are quite familiar with him. He… well, he was younger then, and quite the charmer. He charmed his way into our group, and charmed his way into our hearts. One of our hearts at least.

Sky became obsessed with him. She loved him, or so she thought. They did everything together, to the point where I felt suspicious. Was Eta tearing our group apart? Slowly, our group started to split. Almost every day, the duo were gone until late at night where they would tramp back and pretend that nothing had happened. Inside my mind, a war began.

Was Eta evil? Spinning webs of deceit? Or did he truly love Sky back? I lost sleep. My fighting waned. I became drained, mentally and physically. DoubleH noticed.

Together, we discussed our worries, and I slowly improved. But slowly. Then, Jaffa came. She literally swung into our hideout and became fast friends with us.

But when she came, Eta's eyes fixed on her, and he threw Sky away. She came sobbing into my room. I tried to comfort her, but Eta's deep charm had dove deep into her. DoubleH, Jaffa and I did everything we could.

We barely managed to keep her from the brink of madness, when one day, she disappeared. Eta pretended she had never been in his love life, and continued to court Jaffa, whom we were pleased to see was making a valiant fight against his charm. Never once did she stoop lower to allow him into her head, and that intrigued me.

How could such a young girl, alone until now, manage to ignore the tempting affections she surely wanted? DoubleH and I approached her, and found out her secret.

She did not like boys. He late boyfriend had cheated on her, and the Olympians had humiliated her. She sought only to follow in the footsteps of Artemis, but to have us be her companions as Artemis had also shunned her.

She had learned how men could be, and she understood the way of life. In some ways, she was more mature than any of us.

She became our companion, a wise one who made sure we were never lured into Eta's trap, but it was too late. We had accepted him into our lives. We had given him our food and drink. We had called him our family. We had put in him our trust.

We had let him grow his seeds of doubt and trust. We had trained with him; all our technique required him in it. But he was gone. Gone to the other side where he knew that we would fail.

So he joined Gaea. And Sky, poor Sky, went with him. You see, while we had talked with Jaffa and she told us he story, he had been busy. He had once again charmed Sky into believing that he would never leave her, and he had charmed her into believing that Gaea was the good guy.

And so, another of our team mates left.

The battle was brutal. We fought. And then, I remember, as the battle waned, Eta realized he was losing. Immediately, he used Sky as the reason for his turn over, claiming that she had set him up somehow. I watched as Sky's face and mind realized how deep Eta had gone to betray her in the end.

She flew off, leaving us to deal with Eta, but he escaped. When we finally caught up to Sky, we found her suicidal, jumping off a 50 story building. She didn't even try to save herself. She lived, but she was cracked. Broken.

She was scared. Scared of her powers, and scared of betrayal. Betrayal had made her jump of the building was her reasoning, and so she became scared to trust. After multiple years, we have formed a very fragile friendship, but a friendship none the less.

We just had a talk. I realized that… well, you were specialized in archery, yet you were a son of Poseidon. You had blond hair and blue eyes… not black hair and green eyes as was the trait most children of Poseidon have.

I asked her about Zoë because I was curious about how she was. She told me that she had been with Hercules who, like a bully and like an average man, used Zoë's idea and didn't give her any credit.

He married a woman who was a son of Poseidon, and he gifted Hercules with the power of himself, so that together, the powers would be the equivalent of an entire Poseidon, half of Zeus and half human.

When their child would be born, half of it would be imbued with Poseidon's power, and the other half would either take a fourth of Zeus's power and a fourth of human, or take only the human half, or only the Zeus half.

Will… the powers Hercules were granted are like yours, and well… the part about not being able to shoot because of Poseidon's genes? I think that would be Zeus's. We all know he had great aim with his master bolt. So… either you have half of Zeus's genes, a fourth of it, or none of it, but I'm going with the first."

**(There… a lot of things now make sense, right? Well, I'm happy I could help.)**

Alyss finished. We all stared at her. She seemed lighter after giving us her burden, but he face seemed weary and haggard.

Kaze broke the silence.

"I… wow. All this time and none of us ever knew." He marveled. I nodded numbly.

"Yeah. Wow." I repeated.

All this time, my true father had been Hercules **(remember, all these assassins and knights came from different points in time)**

I wanted to laugh at it all. Why me? Of all the little children in the world, I had to have Hercules as my father.

I didn't know what to feel; happy, sad, angry, carefree…

I didn't feel any of those feelings. All I felt was a growing dread that knotted up my insides and pulled tighter with every breath I took.

I felt buoyant and light, like I was about to pass out. One step, and I felt like I was walking on balloons. Black mist flooded my vision.

I blinked hard, and after a few seconds I felt heavier and not as light and dizzy. I felt… aloof from everyone, like they were watching me from a distance, like I was some sort of disease.

Instantly, I felt rage. Rage at my father for never telling me who he was. Rage at my father for being who he was. What he was.

Then, I felt confusion. How he could have been the golden boy of Olympus? My father was not kind, nor heroic. He was cruel and mean. I could still feel the lash of the whip slashing into my back whenever I talked back to him.

It had been many years since I had seen him. But I could still remember his large, brawny arms gripping me as he drunkenly yelled in my face. _I_ was the reason why he was the way he was. He had always told me. It was my fault that I got lashed and whipped and beaten.

When I was younger, I would believe him, taking my beatings obediently, until I realized that my father was the one to be punished. I rebelled against him, and finally managed to run away, but the scars never faded away.

A calming aura touched me, and I recognized Alyss's hands as she comforted me. I closed my eyes. Then, I took a deep cleansing breath, before I opened my eyes again. Meeting the eyes of my friends, I closed my eyes… Again, and calmly took another breath.

Then, I opened them and went with Kaze, Alyss, DoubleH, Fear, Blaze, and all the other knights and junior assassins. _This_ was my family.

**Jaffa POV.**

I woke up with a killer headache.

What the… what had happened? I looked around woozily as I tried to place where I was. I blinked, and the world came into a sharper focus. I frowned as I saw that I was encased in a glowing black sphere of energy. Where had this come from?

Confusion sparked in my brain. Then, suddenly everything was clear. I shot straight up, pausing only a couple of seconds to cradle my head from the quick blood rush before I stood up.

"Hey!" I shouted, trying to get someone's attention. Anyone's attention.

"Hey! What's going on here?" A tall man in a black cloak appeared suddenly, outside of my sphere of encasement.

"Why, Hello, Xylene." He said; his voice was rough and cold. I stared at him.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" I demanded. Where were my mom and dad? The man laughed evilly.

"Don't you remember me, Xylene? We knew each other a long time ago." He laughed again. A cold, maniacal laugh that sent shivers down my spine. I shuddered and huddled in a ball, grey washing out everything in the world.

"No." I whispered.

"No… I don't remember you."

And then I fell into a deep sleep.

**(GASP! Oh no! what has happened to poor Jaffa…. Or should we say Xylene? :O)**

**Mystery POV.**

I paced angrily as I waited for my boyfriend to return. Glancing at my watch, I cursed and slammed my fist into a wall. He was 10 minutes late. Where was he?

A hoarse chuckle interrupted my pacing.

"You know, walking faster isn't going to make him come to you faster." I scowled momentarily, before quickly rearranging my face into a polite, vague look.

"Of course, Mistress." I said in a sweet, honeyed voice.

Inside, however, I was mentally raging and shouting all the curse words I knew at her. How in the world had I not realized how much I hated her? Still, it did not do to antagonize her. After all, she was my mistress.

"You seem troubled." The voice said, her grating voice getting on my nerves.

"One cannot focus when fighting inner demons."

I KNOW! I wanted to shout, but instead, I politely replied,

"Of course Mistress." I then blanked my find in case she was mind reading me, and tried to calmly wait for him to come.

Like magic, he appeared. Well… it was magic, he had teleported here.

As usual, his appearance left me breathless.

Thick, wavy-ish blond hair that waved down to his shoulders. Silky bangs fluttered on his face, showing off his chiseled face and angular chin. Hazel eyes rimmed with long lashes alighted on the room, showing nothing but respect and happiness.

An angular nose complimented his features, and his full mouth lifted into a smile. A hint of white teeth showed as he grinned slightly.

His silver cape fluttered around him, showing off his broad shoulders, and narrow waist. In a few steps, he was right in front of me.

"My lady." He said, smiling down at me from his 6'1 height. I smiled back at him from my 5'6 height.

"My lord." I replied. He stepped around me and bowed to my mistress.

"Madam." He said. Only he got away with saying that. The rest of us had to say Mistress.

"Hello, my dear." Mistress said indulgently, his charismatic aura stopping her from punishing him.

"What is the news?" She asked. He bowed his head, never a good sign.

"She is completely wiped, but not her regular self; she is more vulnerable. Our plan is not currently working." He said, but I caught the slight tinge of concern in his voice.

Fury consumed me. Of course he would care about _her_. _She _was all he cared about. I hid my scowl though, like a puppet. A smiling, polite puppet that wanted to scream

"Does it matter?" I asked in a calm voice, making sure no one realized how angry I was.

Eta looked at me like I was daft. He would never look at _her _that way.

"Of course it does, the plan centers around her." He snapped. Mistress looked annoyed, and I cursed myself for letting my jealousy control my actions.

"My apologies. I meant only that we could move on to Plan B since Plan A isn't working." I said hastily, all the while cursing _her _in my head.

Eta looked slightly mollified, and my Mistress was content with my excuse.

"No, we will not have to move to Plan B…. yet." Mistress said. I looked at her confused.

"But… how are we supposed to get the plan to work if she's vulnerable?" I asked. Mistress cackled.

"Just wait and see. Just wait and see." She said, grinning with a secret smile on her face.

Eta bowed.

"I will keep my tabs on her as promised, Madam." He said, all suave, like nothing had happened. I bit my lip to keep from frowning.

Mistress smiled again.

"Of course, Eta. Make sure T doesn't get to her too much, though." She sing songed, and then gracefully stood up and exited the room. Eta smiled at me.

"So babe, how would you like to go ride the shoots with me?" He asked expectantly.

Riding the shoots is when you basically ride the air waves (we were underground and used travel by air pushing us through pipes and passageways) around. Normally, I would have jumped at the chance, but this time, I was angry at Eta. Angry at him for acting concerned about his ex.

"Not today, Eta." I said, unable to keep the cold from my voice. He looked at me surprised. Normally he would have me wrapped around his finger, begging him for a ride, and normally, I would call him my pet name for him, Theo.

_Think you got me wrapped around your finger, huh? _I thought.

_Think again._ I swished away from him, head high, making sure I couldn't see his hurt face. I contented myself to the thought that kept my going.

_One day, He'll be mine, Xylene Rase, and then, I'll have him wrapped around _my _little finger, and he'll never think about you ever again. I promise you that._

**END! So, so sorry that I couldn't update sooner, and I actually would have (I'm serious this time) but my computer is having trouble loading and it's losing files, so I have to save them on my C Drive and all that nonsense, and so half this chapter got deleted (sorry if it's a bit rushed) Then again, I should've been done with this a long time ago… so PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! **

**Review, please, and maybe I'll update faster. **

**Actually… scratch that, if I get **

**5 reviews, I'll update within a week. **

**10 reviews that aren't drivel and rubbish, and I'll update within 2 or 3 days. **

**20 reviews that aren't drivel and rubbish, and aren't from the same users, and I'll update within the next couple of hours… promise**


	7. Where Everything is Revealed

**Why hello! Due to y'alls reviews, I've magically updated! I know, I know, I need to update faster and all that junk, but honestly people, writers need to be able to write in a peaceful, non-harassing environment. Is that even a word? Non-harassing… meh. Anyways, thanks so much ****J**** Ok, so on to the next chapter….**

**Xylene Rase POV (Note that it doesn't say Jaffa anymore :O)**

_What the heck is going on?_ My mind thought. I impatiently ignored my inner conscience demanding to find answers. Normally, I would follow it. After all, instinct is what saves you.

The only problem was that I _couldn't_ find answers. Being trapped in a glowing sphere of black energy does that to people.

_But I want answers…._ My mind pleaded. I scowled. Lately, it had been getting harder and harder to ignore my mind's personal needs. I was probably going insane. It wasn't my fault though… I mean honestly, how well do you expect people to hold up when they wake up alone, cold, miserable, and hungry in a cage of black power?

It does things to your mind. Trust me; I know all about it.

Not everyone is an expert on mental psychology, but seeing as I've been through a lot in my life, I consider myself to be one of the universe's most knowledgeable insane doctors. 'Cause, you know, being possessed by your mom is _so_ healthy for your brain. And then there's the fact that I somehow have lost a huge chunk of memory since I can taste the after effects of distilled Altotitan.

As a poison, Altotitan kills. Only a number of things can heal it. Most people think that only phoenix tears can heal that. Yippee me, I'm a phoenix. I know you're probably extremely curious about how I became a phoenix seeing as my parents are…. Well, actually, I'd prefer if they remained anonymous.

Anyways, becoming a phoenix is another story I'll probably save for later. So, back to the Altotitan.

Altotitan can kill anything, and anyone. Like, you know, when Achilles died. Everyone is all like, "Oh! Achilles died of an arrow to his weak spot! His ankle!"

Well my dear people, that is a lie. Achilles did bathe in the river of Styx, but his weak spot wasn't his ankle. I mean honestly, it would be so easy to hit it. How dare you even think to call one of the world's greatest heroes stupid.

Anyways, his weak spot was actually under his arm. A hard place to hit. **(It's the spot where Luke's Achilles heel is; Kronos knew the real Achilles heel, and using that would help increase Luke's powers tenfold)**

The only thing was that the arrow was dipped in Altotitan poison. So, even though his skin was invulnerable, Altotitan could pierce through his protective, iron hard skin. Killed him on the spot. Ah, the sad days. Altotitan was also used on Paris to.

When Philoctetes shot Paris with his poisoned arrows (from a water dragon that had Altotitan as a poison) Paris died. Only, his first lover, Oenone, a nymph, loved him so much that his dying process slowed. You see, the problem was that she also hated him for leaving her for Helen. Therefore, he eventually died.

You see, another cure for Altotitan is total, unrestrained love. So since Oenone loved Paris so much, he didn't die immediately. Still, love ends when you cheat on the one who loved you.

The last cure for Altotitan would be to stab yourself with a knife made of pure Sanka Silver directly in the heart.

Of course, the last cure is a theory at best. Besides, Sanka Silver is so rare, it would take at least a couple thousand years to manage to even find enough silver to make a coin the size of a dime.

Therefore, there are only 2 cures to Altotitan.

On the other hand, distilled Altotitan doesn't kill, but it does take away certain memories. You merely have to find someone who was reborn and bathed in the River Lethe, gut them like a fish, collect all of their blood in a gold cup (not a drop of blood can be spilt) so that the blood isn't contaminated, and then mix that with Altotitan.

It's bloody and gruesome. Don't ask how I know all this information. With a father like mine, well… let's just say that the more I know about death and killing, the better.

As it is, I have no idea where my parents are which should be a good thing, but honestly… if someone managed to take me without my parents or my knowing, it wouldn't be a good thing for any of us.

And also, as it is, I currently am having a staring contest with a creepy wannabe grim reaper. Let's just call him CWGR for short.

**(A.N Anyone note that she gave him the same nickname when she wasn't brainwashed?)**

So, CWGR and I are staring at each other, when someone appears out of thin air. Like literally. I've been able to fly around with my wings and all that… but honestly, appearing out of thin air? How was that possible?

**(You guys are probably confused since Jaffa can boom travel and all that stuff, but she now currently thinks that this is the time where she is with her mom and dad, not Chaos, so she is less experienced)**

It was a tall figure in a silver cloak. A small emblem of a flame was embroidered on the shoulder. I frowned. That flame was the insignia of my father. Well. I guess my parents do know where I am. The CWGR quickly bowed to silver cloak.

"Well done, T." Silver cloak said imperiously. I tried hard not to snort. The guy sounded like a duke who thought he was king, and was actually commanding the true king to do his bidding. In short, he sounded like a slightly nervous, arrogant douchebag with way too much bravado.

CWGR or… T as silver cloak called him, kept on bowing, but I got the feeling that he was seething beneath his unreadable mask. Then, silver cloak turned to me. I could see under his hood.

That was weird. Normally, I couldn't see under the magic covering over my father and mother's capes and cloaks. But now… what the heck… what had happened to me?

I scowled at silver cloak. He had thick, wavy hair that was a coppery red or bronze color. A roman style face, all angles and points, with brilliant blue eyes stared back at me. In short… well… he was a looker, but hey, I'm not into guys. I will never date again. Not after Adam.

Besides, my parents would kill me. Literally… no, really. Like, they would seriously kill me.

But, anyways, I digress. Back to the story.

So I was scowling at silver cloak, and suddenly, a girl pops out of nowhere… _again._ Honestly people… please stop doing that; it's doing things to my mind. Not that I would expect them to be reading this that is.

Silver cloak turned so suddenly, I found myself admiring his quick reflexes, but then caught myself. Rule number 319 in my boy handbook: never admire anything about men. It brings only despair and destruction. It should probably have been number one since it was because of this that I fell in love the first time…

_Flashback_

_"Hi-ya!" I sent a spinning sidekick into the side of the dummy. Wood cracked, and stuffing flew out of it. I looked at it in distaste. It's head was swinging lopsidedly on its post due to my double uppercut and right hook. Its arms were strewn on the floor, cracked and freakishly bent. _

_The body was littered with caved in holes due to multiple roundhouse kicks, sidekicks, and punches. The sidekick I had just delivered caused it to bend at the hip, like it was a model or something._

_"Nice kick." A voice behind me said. I turned quickly. It was a boy about my age. He had sleek black hair and jade eyes. His eyes were mesmerizing, cool blue and teal, but them a cold jade and emerald. I flushed._

_"Hi." I murmured. Then, I shook my head. What the heck was wrong with me? It wasn't like I hadn't seen him before. _

_"Adam." He said, grinning at me. I averted my eyes from his eyes._

_"Xylene." I said. _

_"Xylene… what a beautiful name." He said. I looked up to make sure he wasn't joking._

_"Thanks." I shyly said. He smiled at me._

_"You're Welcome." He replied, still smiling. I smiled back at him. I couldn't help it, his smile was contagious._

_"By the way, you need to bring your knee higher, it helps your kick extend all the way out, and push all your power through your hip." Adam advised. I stared wide eyed at him. Then, I grinned._

_"Thanks, Adam. Didn't know you were a fighter…" I trailed off, grinning wickedly. He mock scowled at me._

_"Thy lowly maid dares to insult the big bad warrior? How dare she!" He exclaimed. I giggled._

_"Thy lowly maid does dare to insult the big bad warrior who doesn't seem so big and bad as he was made out to be." I teased. He laughed._

_"I didn't know you were so playful." He teased. I rolled my eyes._

_"Oh, you know, I just act like a shy person… like you. You act like a big bad warrior when you aren't otherwise…" I grinned, and then ran off into the arena. Behind me, I could hear Adam shout, _

_"Oy! Get back here insolent maid!" I laughed. _

_When he finally caught up with me, we sparred for what seemed like hours. He was a great warrior. And I found myself duped again and again with his fighting skill. Still, I almost managed to disarm him, before he flipped me onto my back, and pretended to pose for the cheering crowd. _

_I laughed, and then knocked him over. We sparred for more hours._

_And that was how it all began. Two weeks later, we were best friends, and 4 or 5 months afterwards, we were boyfriend and girlfriend. 3 years afterwards? I left Camp Half-Blood._

_End Flashback_

Just as I was getting out of my reverie, I remembered the weird girl who appeared out of nothingness. When I looked back at silver cloak, I realized he knew her. Silver cloak had relaxed when he saw who the girl was, but I still saw some tension in his shoulders.

"Sky? What are you doing here?!"

**(Gasp! Oh no! Sky is evil!)**

**Will POV.**

It had been three hours since I found out who my father was. Three hours since I came to the conclusion that my family… my real family was the knights and assassins. Grace, one of my best friends, had helped shoo everyone away, and she, Alyss, and the other William, who were my very close friends came around me.

**(A.N the prophet Will is known as Will, even though his real name is William. This Will is described as the one with wavy hair and innocent looking. The Will known mainly as William is the one with Bieber bangs. Got it?)**

"Dude. You okay?" William asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. Couldn't have been better." I said sarcastically. Grace snorted.

"Trust us, Will, you really couldn't have been better. I've read your aura, and it tells me you're actually more at peace with yourself." She said. I scowled at her.

"You just had to ruin my fun." I said. Alyss raised her eyebrows.

"We all did." She said with a hint of mischievousness in her voice.

Alyss had grown close to Grace since the two of them had "similar pasts," apparently. Alyss had also grown close to William and playfully called him Will 2. I called him that to since his reactions were priceless.

I theatrically sighed.

"What have I done to deserve such friends? One of them is an aura reading, snarky daughter of Aeolus, and the other is a prankster who can kick butt at close combat." I said. Will 2 pretended to look offended.

"What… I haven't done anything wrong to you either? What kind of friend are you?" He mock exclaimed. Grace elbowed him in the stomach.

"Of course you haven't, you're the little goody-goody." She snapped. I stifled my laughter. Grace and William were friends, but they argued so much. The arguments weren't nasty, they were actually super funny, but their reactions to each other were hilarious, and their insults were actually pretty creative.

Grace's face suddenly became serious, though, and I knew that we were going to get down to business.

"Ok, so we all know that your dad is… Hercules-" Grace looked me in the eye, trying to detect anything bad. I tried not to cringe.

"Do go on." I said caustically. She rolled her eyes.

"Ok, fine, so your dad is Hercules. How does it feel, to have such a powerful father?" She asked in a mock announcer voice. William laughed.

"Yes, oh young Will, how does it feel to have such an awe inspiring person in your life?" He asked. He and Grace started to argue about whether or not Hercules was labeled as an awe inspiring person in the news. Grace usually won these contests; after all, her dad did do the god's daily news. Not that she had talked to him since she had been disowned and betrayed, that is.

Alyss rolled her eyes.

"Do be quiet, this isn't time for jokes." She said. Grace scowled and stuck out her tongue, but quieted down.

Alyss turned to me.

"Ok Will, we all know you hate your father. Heck, we all do, but you realize that this is important. Don't you think it's fishy that one of the world's greatest heroes had a son, and beat him? Do you realize that when Hercules died, and was sent up to the gods to become a minor god, that everyone should have known you were his son?"

I frowned. When Alyss put it that way, it was odd. Grace and Will frowned to.

"Dude. I don't know what happened to our reasoning skills, but that is pretty serious s***." Grace commented. William whacked her on the head.

"Oy! No potty mouthing!" He exclaimed. Grace stuck her tongue out at him, and rubbed her head.

"I'm older than you. Now be quiet and let me curse." She said imperiously. Alyss and I locked eyes.

"Not again." We both said, groaning.

**Grace POV**

Will 2 and I argued. He was like a brother to me. I smacked him on his head, watching his blue eyes widen considerably. He looked hilarious. Then, I noticed Will watching me.

I was suddenly self-conscious. Gods, did I look like c*** today? Was my hair messed up? Darn, I hate these days.

In case you haven't noticed, I have a crush on Will. Like a majorly huge one. I have since I had seen him the day he arrived.

_Flashback_

_Jaffa strolled up the sides of the training grounds, lounging on the wall with- what seemed to be- not a care in the world. We all knew that this was an act, but a good one. She sold it really well. So well that the first time I had seen her do that, I had actually thought that she was an amateur. _

_Of course, I paid for that. _

_As it was, I was sparring with Kaze, and SRoA, who had arrived before me, was also sparring with me. It was SRoA and me against Kaze who was completely blind and weaponless. Of course, the blindness was temporary; it held for about an hour before it wore off._

_Kaze had SRoA pinned down with one hand, and was sparring with me with the other. How the guy did that made no sense to me. Suddenly, Kaze had paused, and SRoA threw him off. She and I attacked, but stopped when we realized that he was looking in the direction of Jaffa. _

_She was tensed up and leaning her head towards the entrance, like something was going on that troubled her. She glanced at us, then at the door. Then back at us. It was like she was fighting to stay where she was. Contrary to popular belief, Jaffa isn't as take charge and scary as she seems. _

_Anyways, she was looking between us and the door, when the doors burst open. Jaffa hit a fighting stance, which slid off as quickly as it had come on when she saw who it was. Me, well, I was still getting _in _to fighting stance. I clumsily shook it off when my eyes saw Chaos at the door._

_A young boy was standing next to him, beaten to a bloody pulp. Me, being me, scoped him out first. _

_He was tall, really tall. His matted hair hung almost to his shoulders, and dust and monster grime coated him everywhere. A thin strand of blood ran down his temple, and one side of his face was a mess; it was streaked with blood._

_He stood, hunched over like he expected someone to go at him with a cane, and his hands shook. His bronze sword was clasped in his hands like that of a pro, though, and I knew that in better shape, this guy was going to be a difficult opponent._

_He was wearing a pair of torn jeans, bloodied and dusty with long rips that looked like scratch marks. His white shirt was completely soaked through with blood and sweat and underneath, I saw that he had a six pack. A pretty darn good one at that, too._

_His face was in a grimace, but his eyes captured me. deep, blue eyes, so innocent and wide that I couldn't believe that this guy could even find the heart to kill anything, even a monster. The moment I saw his eyes, it was when he saw mine. _

_It was like a whole cliché locking eyes moment. Then, he fainted. Collapsed like a sack of potatoes. How anticlimactic is that? Before he had even finished hitting the ground, Jaffa was there, holding him, and picking him up like he didn't even weigh as much as a sack of potatoes. She frowned when she picked him up._

_"He's light." She said, her voice rippling over everything. It was so powerful, so full of energy, so charged, that every time I heard it, I felt chills going down my spine. Chaos nodded. He looked grim_

_"Akheilos." He said. I frowned. My mind went on autopilot to find out who Akheilos was. My father had an entire day on this. Being who he is, a day was pretty big. Heck, 10 minutes was big to._

_"Akheilos, son of Lamia and Zeus. He was very handsome, but was cursed to turn into a half human, half shark daemon due to the fact that he attacked some half bloods. Aphrodite was jealous and didn't favor Akheilos because he boasted that he was fairer than her. He died by Athena's hands." I recited. **(The links for this information are on my profile. Akheilos is a real figure in mythology, but some of this information may or may not be true. Just a warning)**_

_Chaos nodded. _

_"Yes, and from what this young man told me when I found him, his father had sent Akheilos on him. A very hard feat to do seeing as Akheilos is a loner." _

_Suddenly, the boy woke up, he clutched Jaffa's shoulder._

_"He's coming. My fault… all mine. I deserve…" then he fainted again. Jaffa sighed._

_"They always go mad when this happens." She said, before turning to me._

_"Grace, go take him to the infirmary. Stay there and ensure he is ok. Try to help get the whole story, but don't push him." With that, she loaded the guy into my arms. I expected him to weigh at least 100 pounds, maybe even more, but he felt like only 70 or 80. Definitely not healthy._

_"Bloody h***, this guy is light." I said in amazement. Jaffa scowled at me._

_"Language." She said warningly. I swallowed._

_"Right." I said, remembering the taste of the slippery soap in my mouth._

_Then, hefting up the poor guy like a sack of potatoes…. Again, I carried him to the infirmary. There, I quickly and efficiently stripped his shirt off…_

_Don't look at me like that! It wasn't like I was ogling at him… well, maybe a little, but get your mind out of the gutter! _

_Anyways, after his shirt was off, I quickly disposed of it, and washed him down with a cool cloth. Hi muscles rippled under my touch, and I fought to stay in "clinical Grace" mode. He had two long gashes down his right side, and with a touch of my hand, the skin and muscle reknitted itself. _

_It was only temporary, of course, but with my added force, the air had been removed, sealing together his skin so that it would heal faster. It would also keep the wound clean. _

_Then, I carefully bandaged his side, but when I got to the back, I stopped. Dark bruises covered his back. The bruises were mostly rounded, and about twice the size of both my fists combined, which, is pretty big. The bruises were a dark purple with a yellow-green rim and red, wine colored center. I winced._

_Those looked painful. Still, even with the bruises marring and covering his skin, I didn't miss the scars; long, thin scars that ran down his back, crisscrossing here and there. They were very thin, and were silvery, so they didn't stand out too much, and make his back look too bad, but I recognized the scars._

_Whip wounds. Quickly, I probed his skin, and using my air power, I gently closed the bleeding blood vessels that caused his bruises. Then, I made a small cut in the skin, and suctioned out all the bruised bleeding under the skin so that the bruises disappeared._

_Then, I closed the small cut. The whip wounds were more clearly seen, and I winced at the amount. Gently, I ran my hands over some of the more recent scars, and found some that weren't as deep as others. These, I cut open, again, and healed with my air power, making sure it wouldn't scar._

_When I was done, his back looked better. About 20 to 30 of the scars had disappeared, and were currently on the mend. Then, I looked at his pants._

_After cleaning his legs… uh, this was awkward… and making sure not to look, um, _there,_ I quickly pulled on another pair of pants on him, as he had no leg wounds other than the claw marks. These, I sealed, and since they were already on the mend, I just let them be. _

_In his pockets, I found his weapons. There was a pair of handcuffs that were in great condition; shiny, and gleaming imperial gold. There was also a small metal box with a red button on it. I set them to the side. Whatever they were, they were obviously important._

_Then, I wiped his face clean, and ran a comb through his hair before washing it. After several minutes of yanking… softly, that is…. And pulling his hair, I managed to comb it, and dry it easily with my air power. Then, I placed him on the infirmary bed. Checking his back wounds and leg wounds, I found that my air power, and special salve used to heal quickly, had healed them all. _

_The boy's face looked even contented now that most of the pain was gone, but I knew that he would be a bit achy for a few days. Now wouldn't be a time to push him. _

_Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes and gasped. I rushed to his side. He blinked woozily and then looked at me._

_"Who are you?" He demanded, trying to sit up, before frowning and realizing he didn't have a shirt on and he still had bandages on. I tilted my head at him._

_"I'm Grace. I'm also like you, I'm a demigod. My father is Aeolus, and I'm an assassin. Chaos… yes, lord Chaos, took me into custody, and he has done so to you. I've healed you the best I can, and got rid of most of your scars. By the way, you're weapons are over there, so uh… yeah. Just rest for now, though. What you need is a lot of sleep." I gently laid him down. _

_He looked a bit shell shocked, the poor guy. Before he could fall asleep though, he murmured,_

_"My name is Will." _

_And that was when I knew he would be trouble for me._

_End Flashback_

"Grace? Grace… Grace?!" Will yelled in my face. I blinked rapidly.

"Oops… sorry." I said sheepishly, when I realized that Will had been yelling at me for the past minute. Alyss raised her eyes brows at me. I grimaced and shrugged. Will 2 scowled at me.

"Really, you couldn't just listen to me rant. NO! You have to go off into daydreaming land, and leave me where without an audience!" He cried. I scowled at him, happy to have something to distract me from Will, who was looking at me confusedly.

"Well, sorry, oh great and majestic king!" I said sarcastically.

Will groaned.

"And off the go again." He said in mock annoyance, before walking off.

"See you guys later when you aren't arguing." He called. Will and I exchanged glances, before calling back, "Never!"

Will groaned.

Alyss crossed her arms, and gave me a look. I mouthed 'later' at her, and motioned towards the pool of tears when Will 2 wasn't looking. She rolled her eyes, but walked away, leaving me to argue with William. One of my favorite pastimes. Still, I sighed and looked in the direction that Will was walking in.

If only you knew Will, if only you knew.

**Ok y'all! This is 8 pages, so I guess this kinda makes up for the last times, since I usually write 6 to 7 pages, but then again, this was only just a filler kind of chapter.**

**I know you want action… but this is IMPORTANT…. Anyways, what do you guys think of WillxGrace? Tell me what you think, and other possible pairings. I'll pair the two that most fans like… unless the plot tells me something else…. But anyways**


	8. Where Everything Goes Out of Whack

**Back again, y'all! This chapter SHOULD have some action unless I feel too lazy, but I hope y'all like it, and review to tell me better! The pairings need more reviews though… so, unless you want a junky story, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**

**Anyways, onwards with the story!**

**Alyss POV**

I lounged carefully against the stone wall. Making sure that I had an air of casualness and complete authority, I acted like I wasn't anxiously waiting for someone to talk to. Then, I looked at my watch. Grace was late.

Giving an almost audible sigh, I strode towards the pool of tears, and knelt, glancing into the water. My hands gripped the rim of the pool, fingertips brushing the top of the water, sending small ripples out from each fingertip. I glanced down at my hands.

The luminous glow from it made my skin look a pearly, translucent white like a vampire. I swiftly withdrew my fingers, sending drops of glistening liquid flying across the room. I hate vampires. A sound of surprise drew my attention.

"Of all the things I expected you to do since I'm late; flinging water was not one of them." Grace said jokingly.

Surprised that Grace had somehow managed to sneak up on me without my noticing, I quickly adjusted my hair, but in reality, I made sure that my shocked face was completely hidden under a poker face. I fiddled with my hair.

Today, I had twisted my hair at the back of my head, and using a golden clasp, I tied it. The hair flowed up like a bouncy, high ponytail, and then cascaded down my back. To keep strands from getting into my face, I had fastened the ponytail near the bottom with another matching clasp.

If I swung my head at the right trajectory, I could possibly knock someone out.

Grace's hair, on the other hand, was in a simple side braid. Starting at the temple, the braid went straight down, behind the ear, and flowed about halfway down her back. The ends were tied with colored feathers. The feathers were red and orange

The bright fiery red and subtle, cinnamon colored orange helped her brown and blond highlights stand out more.

Grace's hair looked beautiful. When Grace caught me looking at her hairstyle, she explained,

"Jaffa used to do my hair. I just… really like this hairdo, so I asked her to teach it to me." She said hastily. She looked rather sad, and I cursed myself. Grace had enough sadness in her life.

"Oh. Sorry." I whispered. I had nothing else to say. Grace sat next to me.

Her skin, when lit with the glow of the water seemed luminescent, glowing. She looked beautiful. I mentally bashed my head in.

I was not jealous of how Grace looked. I mean, DoubleH is pretty, and you don't see me getting jealous over her hair or face.

"So. You wanted to talk." Grace prompted. I took a deep breath. I wasn't too good with all this girl talk.

"You like Will." I said. My voice was emotionless. Emotionless was better than spite. That was good at least.

Grace was silent for a few seconds, before she responded.

"Yeah. I do." And then the whole story came pouring out.

"When I first saw him, he was all beaten up. I, uh, I kinda thought he looked hot. He was unconscious, though, so I was tasked with sending him to the infirmary and helping him recover. I cleaned his wounds, and all that stuff, and he, well, he woke up after I finished healing him.

I think that he feels a kind of friendship with me because I helped him adjust to the Chaos forts, and because I was the first person he met. First impressions are usually really rememberable. Anyways, I helped him out, and… when he was unconscious, I found out a couple of little secrets about him.

I think that's mainly why he sought me out the first day. He didn't want me to tell anybody. He got really annoying, getting on my nerves and all that."

Here, Grace smiled sadly, and I knew that there was something she was hiding.

"Eventually, it became a small game between us. One of us would do some weird prank or something, and the other would find out about it. Then, we would pester them not to tell anyone else. It was funny, and kind of childish, and odd, but it was fun.

Then, William came into the picture. He and I, well, we were like brother and sister the moment we first met. There was a connection, you know? Anyways, I know you're kinda thinking that maybe it's William and I that's destined to be together, but honestly, I don't feel anything around him.

Sure I love him and he's like a younger brother to me and all that, but there's no… spark to us. No drama, no passion, nothing. Nada. It's like we were siblings in some other dimension, and we feel the connection of sisterly and brotherly love. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I realized that William and I were just kind of siblings, I realized that something was wrong. I was a heartbreaker for god sake. When I was younger, all the boys would chase me around, and I did nothing but break their hearts because I thought that no boy deserved to have a girl.

They were chauvinistic, sexist pigs. I know now that not all men are like that, but back then, I witnessed many… horrors that convinced me that men were terrible monsters.

I noticed that whenever Will and I were close or talking, William appeared out of the blue and interrupted us. When I asked him about it, he said that his, 'brotherly' instincts were kicking in. I didn't realize what that meant until like, months afterwards.

That was when I suddenly had the epiphany that I had a crush on Will. I… don't understand how it happened. I don't know what caused it, or who knows, or anything. William doesn't know that I have a crush on him. You see, since that moment that I insisted that I had no idea why his 'brotherly instincts' should kick in, he decided that I really didn't have a crush on Will, so he had backed off.

Anyways, I thought that I had hidden it well. I guess not, though. I don't know."

Here, Grace frustratedly yanked on her braid and I hid a smile. She looked so funny when she got mad. Since Grace was overly ADHD (blame the insane dad,) she always had to have something to do, or she overreacted. Whenever she got angry, she had learned early in her life to channel her anger in doing things like tugging her hair, waving her hands around, and stomping her feet.

She covered it up at schools or under cover with the story that she was just melodramatic and wanted to be a drama actress when she grew up.

Before, Grace had channeled her anger through fighting, throwing things around, sending waves of power everywhere in bursts of spontaneous energy. Upon seeing some life changing events, she had taught herself to channel her anger through harmless things, and while there was always the slight chance that she could possibly slip up and accidentally hurt someone, she looked really funny trying to get rid of her excess power through hair pulling, arm waving, and stomping.

Grace scowled at me.

"It isn't funny." She pouted. I laughed.

"Yes it is." I said back. She pouted even more, and yanked a bit more on her braid. Then, she turned to me.

"You like him to, don't you." She said. I bit my lip. Darn it. I forgot she could read auras.

Although you can hide feelings and thoughts, you can't shield your aura. Auras are your pure essence, what you are made up of.

Now, while it may be funny to joke around that we girls are made of sugar, spice and everything nice, You'd be surprised at how many girls in this world have a touch of unpleasantness. Aura readers are really rare, and special.

Trust me when I say that almost no women on the earth would want Aeolus as a husband. Anyways, aura reading needs fierce concentration and focus along with really good, keen senses. You can't read an aura if you aren't good at sifting through the ingredients.

I sighed. Might as well let her know.

"I—" I began before my ears picked up the sound of footsteps. Grace and I got up and readied ourselves for a fight. Kaze walked in.

"Guys, you need to see this." He said grimly. Grace and I looked at each other.

_Next time._ Her eyes read. I nodded slowly. It was only fair.

As we rushed out the room and followed Kaze to who knew where, I let myself sink back into relief. Thank god for distractions, right?

**SRoA POV (New POV guys! Cheers! Hope you like SRoA. And to all that think that it's unfair that mostly girls are getting all the POVs, I'm sorry. I'm just setting this up for the next chapters ****J****)**

Please let this be a lie, please let this be a lie.

I thought to myself, looking pleadingly at the screen. Blaze and DoubleH stood next to me. I could feel the rage pouring off both of them. All the other knights were in shock.

Suddenly, Alyss and Grace walked in, their faces guarded and overly stiff. Me being who I am, I knew right then and there what had happened.

I'm a daughter of Hermes, you see. As a prankster, stealer, liar, and an overall persuasive girl with good talking skills, I knew how to read faces, and know what to say, when to say it, and when to back off.

Alyss looked like when we had first met her, cold, guarded, no mercy in her eyes. It was fairly creepy seeing as she looked like a robot when she did that. The way her eyes kept sliding over to Grace and Will and then William told me that something the matter was wrong with the 4 of them.

Grace, on the other hand, was trembling ever so slightly. Her hands shook a bit, which it always did when she got overly upset or something dramatically bad had happened. To hide the shaking, Grace fidgeted with her hands, a trait she had always had, but I knew that it was false by the way she netted her fingers.

I know that I must sound like a stalker, but hey, I'm overly ADHD, dyslexic, a pescetarian, and a very, very, very observant person.

And no, a pescetarian isn't a mental disease. It means that I don't eat meat. I'm basically a vegetarian, but I do eat fish, so…. Yeah. Pescetarian lessons 101.

Anyways, as I was saying, Grace was fidgeting around and basically looking the epitome of her usual nervous acts, but for some reason, they all looked fake. Alyss and Grace shared a glance, and then looked away.

My brow furrowed. Something was going on. Something bad. Then, I turned to the screen again.

Ok, so something bad had already happened. Fine. Something worse was going to happen.

Grace cleared her throat.

"Ok, y'all, what's going on?" She asked, and to my surprise, despite all her faux looking actions, she really did sound like nothing had happened, and she _was_ nervous. And from what I knew, Grace was _not _a good actor when it came to lying.

I quickly back tracked in my mind to when Grace and Alyss walked in, and then to what Grace had said and sounded like just now. It was all so confusing… Grace acted like something bad had happened, I'm sure of it, but her voice… ugh, never mind.

I made up my mind to ask her about it later.

Beauty Queen interrupted my train of thought.

"Look." She said, gesturing towards the screen, and unconsciously using her charmspeak when she did so. She usually did when she was upset seeing as it's impossible to take emotion that you're feeling away in a second.

Grace and Alyss looked at the screen. Alyss's face paled.

"Oh." She said. Grace nodded.

"Yeah. 'Oh' is right." She said snarkily, with her usual attitude.

Fear shook his head darkly.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg, girls." He warned. Then, he stepped forward and touched the screen.

"Watch this." He said, and I could only wait and see what happened next.

**Alyss POV**

I could see her. A slim girl in a fire red cloak that alternated between silver and red. She was leaning on a doorway arch, a sardonic smile gracing her features. Her whole body was shadowed except for her mouth. A slim hand idly twirled a dagger, as the girl looked upon it with interest.

_Jaffa_

My mind whispered despite all my attempts to stop it. Jaffa. She was alive. She was well… or at least she seemed like she was well.

How was she alive? Percy told me she was dead… I felt her die… what was wrong?

Hoping against hope, I wondered if the girl really was Jaffa, or just a little clone or look alike that Gaea was using to surprise us and get us off guard.

Then, Jaffa, or whoever the girl was, began to talk.

"You know, when I woke up for the first time, I didn't know who I was." She said.

Her voice.

Rich, husky, deep, but still a touch of angel sweetness and melodic tone that made it all the more memorable. Each syllable charged with power, rippling throughout the room. Even though this was just a video, I somehow felt the power through my bones.

It was familiar, the voice, the magic, the power. It was her, no doubt about it.

"But, I'm sad to say that I have a more clear view on my life." Jaffa continued, still focused on her blade.

"You see, since none of you… whoever you are, came to help me, someone else showed me the light." She said, cruelly, her voice calm, cold, never wavering.

This was the voice she used with her enemies.

She smiled a twisted, gruesome smile that made her all the more crazy looking.

"Seeing the light, ha, if it was that easy." She continued. I noted that she let a little more feeling into her expressions and her stances. Whatever had happened, Jaffa was w_ay _out of practice. In a way, she acted younger than what she really was.

Then, Jaffa turned to look at us. Even though her gaze was hidden under her magic cloak, I could still feel her powerful gaze burning into me, seeing my soul and who I was.

"Anyways, I know who you are." Jaffa said, her words twisting into my gut like a knife.

"I know everything about you. And I know all of your lies, your betrayals… everything." She continued ruthlessly.

Everything was spinning out of control; what was going on? What was all this about? What did Jaffa mean by 'lies' and 'betrayals?' Then, the truth hit me right where it hurt.

"Next time I see you, you're dead." Jaffa snapped, and suddenly, almost of it's own accord, her hand rose, the dagger flowing fluidly straight into the camera, or whatever was filming this. The glass shattered, and everything went blurry and static flashed in lines across the screen.

The last words that were heard was,

"Long live Gaea."

And then the voice faded out completely.

**Xylene POV**

I sighed and stretched as silver cloak… I mean,_ Eta_, conversed quietly with Sky. After her little appearance at the 'cave,' which I had learned was the place where I was kept captive, we had pretty much hit it off. It was like I knew her or something.

At first, she had been convinced that I was stealing Eta, who she claimed was completely enamored of me, but after me snorting and basically saying the usual, _girl, you're so much more prettier, and I don't even know anything about him, so you deserve him 'cause I really don't want to date him,_ kind of stuff, she calmed down.

We started to talk just normally, and I noticed how she seemed surprised like she never thought I would be an interesting person or something. I admitted to not remembering anything, and came infinitely close to sharing my secret. Sky was an easy person to talk to.

As she talked with Eta, I admired her long black hair that flowed to halfway down her back. It's silky strands flowed perfectly, looking like there were no knots or tangles in the threads of hair. How Asian people had such perfect hair was beyond me.

**(A.N. Yes, most Oriental… even Asian people had especially smooth hair that is easier to comb, and feels softer and smoother than some other hairs.)**

Her porcelain features and pale skin made her look like a china doll. When I had asked about the tan that most Poseidon kids have, she shrugged and said that her mother had unnaturally pale skin, and the genes had passed down.

I frowned, and looked at my reflection on my dagger blade. I looked so much… older and different than before. Where had I gotten the streaks in my hair? And the contacts that wouldn't come out? What's more, what was with all these niggling fears that were in the back of my head, telling me to leave this place as soon as possible?

And then there was the small voice that kept reciting a weird poem in my head.

_The fate of the world is in her hands,_

_The daughter of fire's final stand._

Shut up. I told the voice.

Whoever the daughter of fire was, she was evidently in serious danger.

Still, I felt the oddest sense of… experience, like I was used to running away, hiding, fighting, doing _something _other than what I was doing now. It was the weirdest sensation; somehow knowing that you are tons more skilled, and having the sudden thought that you knew a move you had never learned before, yet you are sure you had somehow.

I sighed, as I impatiently waited on Eta and Sky. From the moment Sky had 'left' to go find Eta's charmed bracelet (she had returned, claiming that he owned no bracelet) Eta had been hitting on me, claiming that we were boyfriend and girlfriend.

I had to admit, he was pretty suave and charismatic, but seriously, from the way Sky looked at him to the possessive attention she had over him made it obvious that she was his girlfriend, or she _thought _she was his girlfriend at least.

My thoughts were interrupted when Eta and Sky came over. Sky bit her lip and tried to look naturally normal, but I knew somehow deep inside myself that she was just pretending. And Gaea knows how hard I had always worked to be able to read people; I was, in effect, really bad at it… so how come I could read Sky like a book?

I shook myself. _It doesn't matter_ I scolded myself.

Eta tossed me a bracelet. It was really wide, almost like a cuff.

It had a silvery sheen and looked innocent enough. The intricate designs on it showed a weaving, Celtic design that crisscrossed and spiraled throughout the metal.

On the edges, there were two weaving strands, twisting around and around, smaller strands growing off from the two strands, and twisting more and more until it was like a small thicket of strands. From there, somehow, a strand came from each four corners of the bracelet… well, where the corners would be that is, and twined together to form a single strip that ran down the middle.

When I touched the bracelet, it shimmered and glowed. The silvery, cool sheen it once had turned red hot, glowing with an internal fire like a magical ember. While it didn't hurt me, I could feel the heat licking across my fingers. It was like having on a magical protecting skin while a fire was trying to eat you alive.

It felt… odd, yet right. I felt calm and at home.

Eta nodded at the bracelet.

"Put it on your right arm." He instructed. I did so. The bracelet molded around my upper arm, under my shoulder. From there, the two twisting strands sprouted more thinner strands like before, but instead of staying on the bracelet, the strands twisted around my shoulder and arm, latching on.

It didn't hurt, but I felt somehow that I had just sealed my fate. I watched as the strands kept on twisting until they stopped. It looked like the bracelet had roots, and was molding into my skin, but in truth, it was just attached.

When I moved my arm, the bracelet felt weightless, and I couldn't feel it at all, except for the warmth that it exuded.

Once attached, I saw rising, glowing… bubbles, that slid of the metal and lifted into the air. The metal gleamed and burned read hot, giving off misty red stuff. When I looked at Eta and Sky, I realized that they couldn't see the flaming part; all they saw was the silver bracelet, not even burning, on my skin.

How did I know this?

I read their mind.

Do I even know how to read people's minds? Ugh, this is so confusing.

**No it's not.**

A musical, soft voice corrected me. I started.

_Who are you? _I demanded.

**_I am your bracelet, or… the spirit trapped inside. Gaea has used me, but she doesn't understand my full extent. You, my dear, are in need of quite a bit of help. Don't say anything about me being able to contact you. Gaea thinks that she has stopped my powers from getting out of this bracelet, but instead, she has just fueled me and allowed me to shield my powers from watchful eyes._**

I frowned.

_So… the flames that come off of the bracelet?_

**My powers.**

_But… the flames, I feel like I know them…_

**Dear, of course you do! But, of course you don't remember.**

_W-what? What do you mean by 'I don't remember?'_

**Well, to make matters clear, you've been brainwashed. You think you're only 100 years old, yes? The day you mother and father made you part of their army, right?**

_Well… yes._

***laughter* Dear, you aren't 100, you're over 10,000 years old. To be exact, you're 10,016 years old.**

And let me tell you, the world just got much more interesting than ever before.

**DUN DUN DUN! Haha, ok, so this chapter is done, and I hope y'all review some more. Who do you think is trapped in the bracelet? What do you think happened to Jaffa… or Xylene? What do you think is going to happen next? AND THE DEATH SENTENCE XYLENE GAVE TO THE KNIGHTS! What will happen? REVIEW!**


	9. Mystery Girl

**I think something's wrong with my head, When I first typed up this chapter, it was… violent to say the least… like creepy little doll kind of violence, and so I had to re-type it… and it then ended up with very poetic kind of stuff, which is obviously not my style. I tried to tone it down, but it is still kinda poetic and weird sounding.**

**Anyways, next chapter is coming up. J**

**Will POV**

I was in complete shock. First, we find out that Jaffa is alive, and now, she's decided to call us her enemy. Didn't she remember us?

I looked over at Grace and Alyss who were staring at the screen. Poor Grace, of all of us assassins, she's known Jaffa the longest… other than SRoA, of course. I sighed again.

_This world sucks_. I thought bitterly, not for the first time in my life. I mean, look at who I am. Disowned son of Hercules who didn't even know his true heritage until like 10 hours ago, completely confused, messed up teen, and, I mean, why isn't someone there to help me?

Now, I know you're probably thinking; _Well, I thought that guy was pretty cool until I realized what a spoiled brat he is!_

But let me explain. I've been a bit of an independent person, you know, evil father who makes me stay in my room for days on end kinda makes you into one. Anyways, ever since I joined the Chaos Knights, I felt some sense of belonging… like, no one was out there for me to kill me or hurt someone I loved.

And Jaffa and Kaze and Blaze and Fear were almost like parents I never had. Kaze was strong, and a hurricane of feelings, calm, and angry, he was just so… full of energy. A wild hurricane, restrained by his great self-restraint. I wished I was in his division, but I got signed in with Blaze. When I first saw him, He and Jaffa were talking softly.

I saw how he fought.

Graceful, smooth, flowing like water. It was beautiful, really. There was no other way to describe it. The soft swish of his sword as he disarmed his opponent. A small twist and jab, his sword never stopping, just moving forever and ever like the tide, ebbing and flowing.

Agile, quick, but still elegant. I had admired his fighting style. Then, when he got really into it, it all changed. No more smooth, almost languidly bored strokes. It was like watching a painter paint a smooth, sensual picture with long brush strokes, smoothing on the paint and sliding his brush perfectly over the paper.

And then, the strokes changed; angry, hard, thrusting, scratching, slamming… never stopping, never ending. Hard, angry strokes, the brush scratching over the paper, leaving behind those dry scratchy marks when your brush doesn't have enough paint on it.

It was kind of like watching a smooth serene lake, and when you touched it gently, the water rippled beautifully, spreading out into smooth ripples. But when you splashed it, the water recoiled, sending droplets of water everywhere, slapping into the once smooth surface of the water, creating ugly, ugly ripples that overlapped and overlapped until everywhere, no matter where you were, it was there.

Ugly, ugly ripples.

Only, when Kaze fought like this, it still wasn't ugly. It was still beautiful. Like a work of art.

How he did that was amazing; it was as if he had added just the right amount of self-control to soothe everything, to smooth it out and make it all beautiful again.

Blaze, was more of a flashy kind of person, bright and outgoing. She was… refreshing to say the least. She had a bit of a grumpy personality, but when she fought, it was breathtaking.

Blaze mostly used her elemental powers, specifically lightning/fire. She liked making dramatic entrances, but she wasn't an attention hog. When she fought, it was always loud, striking, rememberable. I remember watching her spar.

She had double broadswords that flickered and sparked with blue electricity, and when she clashed blades the discordant sounds echoed in my brain. Her cloak added to her almost double personality. There was her mysteriously blue cloak that shadowed her, made her fade into the background, and then there was her choice of weapons and fighting; strong, flashy, one of those dramatic, 'dun dun dun' kind of things.

It was all cliché lightning strikes the ground, and the blue glow from the swords lights up the features, creating a wonderfully mysterious shadow that glances around, daring anything, or anyone, to come and challenge this mysterious person kind of thing.

Fear, was actually different from Blaze. Rather than facing it all head to head, Grace claimed he was all 'darkness personified' or something. Grace has a poetic way with words when she wants to. Anyways, he's more of a cat and mouse kind of guy.

Call it creepy or cruel, but trust me, I've seen him with his prey, and that guy is downright psycho when it comes to it. Never get on his bad side.

Still, he's surprisingly sweet and good natured, dependable and a basically all around quiet, studious kind of guy who just has all the sweet, caring traits thrown in to make one heck of a perfect dude. I guess the creepy cat and mouse part of it makes it seem a bit like Jekyll and Hyde.

As it is, Fear rarely uses his weapons, it's usually only for show. His biggest power is his use of shadows and whatnot, shadow traveling, hiding, melting, creating clones of himself out of darkness. You name it, he's done it.

When you're fighting with him, even if you're in pitch black darkness, never light a light; it causes more shadows, and lord knows you want your own shadow attacking you from behind.

Jaffa was undoubtly v_ery _independent, and from what Chaos told us, she has had a terrible childhood, and coming from the lord of the universe, that's pretty big. Still, once you get through the cold façade, you find someone who cares so much, it's unbelievable.

When I first met her, I thought she was one of those drill sergeants who are so magically gifted, if you do anything wrong, you would find yourself half dead somewhere out in the arctic tundra dressed in shorts and a t-shirt due to some survival test. Later on, I noticed that she was quiet, but when she spoke, it was playful and sarcastic.

She reminded me of my sister.

If you asked me to describe Jaffa for you, this is what I'd say; witty, kind, quiet, compassionate, cold, scared, funny, and used to being rejected.

Don't get me wrong, super skills with weapons and power works out great for her when she needs to be persuasive, but if you looked at the big picture, and looked at her, observed her and thought about her as an actual human being, you would notice how she clams up when you talk about your parents, and how, even though she acts unaffected, she always covers up with sarcastic humor.

When I asked her about it, she looked at me for a long time, and replied, "You're too observant for your own good, Will." Then, she looked at me… from under her hood of course, and continued.

"Often, people who've been through the same thing tend to talk and bond with each other." And then, she left me alone to my thoughts.

For the life of me, I could never think of her meaning. Of course, I got the 'we've both been through the same thing' stuff, but what? What could make her so… vague and distant about it that she would never talk about it?

Whenever I saw her fight or spar, I noticed her style. Quick, ruthless, stealthy. She would rather throw daggers and shoot arrows at that person before going head on. And if she ever did face them head on, it took only one stroke of her sword or dagger before they were gone from this world.

Now, Jaffa isn't scared of meeting people head on and just fighting out the regular way; she's done it millions of times like that, but she would just rather kill from a distance. I know that sounds really cold and heartlessly coward like, but really, she has less trouble killing from a distance. She used to say that the farther away you are, the less you feel. I suppose it means that she was scared to feel anything for whoever she was supposed to kill.

I know what you're thinking; the great and mighty Jaffa? The daughter of fire? Too scared to actually fight face to face for once? Well, apparently, Chaos says that she has lasting scars from her previous experiences, and every time we spar, I always notice that she's more reserved, more careful; cautious. It's like watching a brilliant human being turn into a machine; robotic, safe, using the same movements, but still able to beat you somehow.

When she's alone, however, she spars with invisible people. It's actually really fearsome to watch. It's like she comes to life, like something just clicks.

Spinning, slashing, jabbing, thrusting, it's just a blur of movement. Leaping agilely, flashing back and forth, treading on dangerous ground, and then luring them into her territory before striking the final blow. Her style is more of stealth and cleverness.

Occasionally, she mixes in her powers, but she doesn't like using them usually. Like I said, she'd rather an invisible dagger or poison. Hey, she was taught in the ways of assassins.

Whenever she fights for real, like true fighting, not just sparring or assassination kind of stuff, it's like finally seeing who she is underneath the quiet, calm façade. It's a raw emotion, unlike anything I've ever felt before. When Grace felt this emotion, she ran from the room and later confided that she would rather kill herself than feel that emotion again.

It's like… pain and rage combined but there's so much loneliness, so much confusion that it just roils together and you don't know where you are, what's happening… nothing. It's like falling into a deep hole, staring up at the sun and sky above you as the darkness draws you in… it feels…

_Broken_

Or maybe it's…

_Captured_

**Annabeth POV (Whoa there, where did she pop up from?)**

It was a normal day at Camp Half Blood. Adam, Mark, and Samantha were acting like pigs as usual, and Grover, Clarisse, the Stoll brothers, Katie Gardner, Hazel, Frank, and I were out at the creek, just chilling.

As I dipped my toes into the cool water, I couldn't help but feel the familiar pang as I remembered Percy. Of course, I wasn't a self-stealing, jealous girlfriend, and I knew what I had done was wrong, so I realized that I had to say goodbye to Percy. He belonged with Jaffa… or her spirit that is. Though I missed him, I knew that I would always find someone else.

Then suddenly, I was wrenched from my thoughts to the sound of screaming. Immediately, I stood up, looking at Grover. He looked grim.

"The camp is under attack!" I called, racing through the meadow to the big house. Chiron was there, wielding his bow and arrow.

"Chiron! What's happening?" I asked. He frowned, and motioned to the border. There, I saw a bunch of campers surrounding something… or someone on the ground.

I jogged over. A girl, about my age, was curled up on the ground. She had shoulder length, auburn hair that was streaked with colors. Caramel, copper, russet, mahogany, it was beautiful. Her hair was soft and silky looking, and fell in choppy layers to her shoulders.

She had side bangs that hung over her left eye, accentuating her pale skin in contrast to her dark hair. Her skin was pale with a touch of creamy gold that gave it a glow. Her face was long and angular with high, prominent cheek bones and black eyes.

Her eyes were black, or really dark brown. Outlined with black eyeliner and mascara she looked like she had raccoon eyes, but somehow, it added to her mysterious, alluring state. **(A.N pic is in my profile… only the person looks really mature and grown up, so let's just pretend that she looks younger than that.)**

She looked fine, really, only a bit shocked, and there was a sort of elusive air about her, something… familiar.

Kneeling beside her, I instantly began checking for vital injuries, taking in her clothes. She was, as most demigods who arrived were, dusty from travel, and had that sort of messy air that told you this person hadn't taken a shower in days. Still, she smelled fresh and clean, a surprising scent for someone like her.

She had on grey, stonewashed jeans, black converse, a white V-neck with a worn, dusty leather jacket, and two leather wristbands with metal spikes to complete the look. She had the sort of punk 'don't get near me or I'll stuff a spoon down your throat' kind of vibe that made you think again when you were about to say something in front of her.

Then, I noticed something on her wrist. A teal, blue watch with swirly mist designs. The mist seemed to be… moving. I glanced at the clock's face. Curiously, the time was frozen. I frowned. I had seen a picture of that watch before… in the big house. When Chiron had people call their parents and whatnot. There were many pictures of us, including one with me and Percy. I could have sworn that I saw one with a girl… no. It was impossible.

She was altogether unhurt, though I noticed she had her left hand clutched at her right shoulder like she was trying to hide something. I nodded at the shoulder.

"Are you ok? Is your shoulder hurt?" I questioned, curiosity bursting from the tip of my tongue. It wasn't every day we got new demigods now that Gaea and Nyx were rising together. In fact, we had all thought that no new demigod added would arrive to camp unharmed. If this girl was actually perfectly healthy, that would be incredible.

Just last week, we had a new demigod boy who died right before he crossed the protective line. I wasn't sure what he looked like since we don't venture out of the camp too often now that all these bad monsters are out there, but from what I heard, he got all his limbs rendered off, and yeah. All that gross stuff.

Now, I gazed at the girl who looked up at me, finally meeting my eyes. I hid a gasp. Her eyes were painfully naïve and innocent.

It was like seeing the soul of a ten year old stuck in the body of a 16 year old. There was so much… innocence in her eyes. Curiosity, intelligence, yet there was that glow to it that told me that this girl had seen nothing wrong in her life. She looked so mature and grown up… yet her eyes were aglow with an almost childlike interest.

When she spoke, her voice was raspy and scratchy from not talking in days.

"I'm fine. My name is…Ryl." And she passed out on the ground, just like that.

**Mystery Person POV**

I tapped my fingers against the cold metal of my throne.

_Tap, tap, tap._

The sound was dull and lifeless, an incessant pecking that filled the stony silence in the room. Black shades darted here and there, filling the room with cold gusts of air, and frosting the walls with ice. I looked at my reflection in the ice.

_Beautiful._

Even through the cold and frostbitten coolness, ice somehow retained its frozen beauty. Shimmering in the light, its icy sheen sparkling in the candle's light.

_Tap, tap, tap._

Another shade flew past, dousing a flickering candle as it swished past. I sighed. One light out, just about a couple thousand to go. Even as I watched, the candles, stubborn little things, continued to glow.

I was ashamed of it really, my love of them. Their embers, hot and warm, sparking in the darkness. The warm glowy feel of the heat.

Ice was gold, hard, sharp, biting. But fire… it was both. Warm and welcoming, but then a raging torpedo, spiraling out of control, burning everything. Gods, even ice needed fire at times. The shiny gleam they acquired when light glanced of them.

Everything. Everything needed fire. Maybe just a touch, but still, everything needed fire.

It was why she was so important. So vital to the plan. Sure, she was a master assassin, the most powerful person in the world. But it wasn't her that made her so powerful. It wasn't her skills in fighting or combat. It never was.

Chaos, the fool, believed her to be strong because of who she was, a girl who bonded with him. He thought she would always stay faithful. What he didn't know was that fire was everywhere.

Everywhere.

Good, bad, in between… everywhere.

No. She was strong because of her power, the light she held inside of herself. Only, she didn't know that, and I planned on using this against her.

_Save the lightning bird indeed._

As I mused quietly to myself, I realized that it was almost midnight… almost time.

As the clock stroke twelve, I heard the small whisper of wind, and Eta and Sky appeared before me.

"My Lady." Eta whispered, bowing. Sky nodded respectfully.

"Mistress." She said accordingly. I regarded them thoughtfully.

"The plan?" I asked.

"Is going as planned. Camp Half Blood won't know what hit them. Likewise the Chaos assassins and knights." Eta replied smoothly. I pressed on.

"And Xylene?" I continued. Eta froze for a bit, before going on.

"I believe she wishes to be now called 'R', my Lady." He said indecisively. Inwardly I raised my eyebrows. Did I sense some sort of… treachery here? Still, I dismissively waved it away, and motioned for him to start talking again.

"She is surprisingly gullible and naïve. She has taken to her role, and one could say she is who she claims to be." Eta said stiltedly, glancing at me every now and then, making sure what he said was correct. I nodded, deep in thought.

Rousing from my memories, I said,

"You may leave." Eta and Sky both bowed again, and boom traveled away. Once they were gone, I motioned for a shade.

"Yessssssssss My Ladyyyyyy?" It hissed, it's breath coming out in cold, icy bursts of air.

"Kill Eta. We cannot have him ruining our mission through love of Xyl… _R_. Break him quickly. I have no wish for him to escape."

"Yessssss My Ladyyyyyy." It hissed, yet again. I dismissed it with a wave of my hand, and soon, I was left to my thoughts.

**Ryl POV (Oooh… the new girl!)**

I woke up, blearily blinking my eyes. Where was I? I tried to get up and look around, until I heard a soft voice.

"She's awake, get Annabeth."

Annabeth. I knew her. The blonde girl. I shook myself, and sat up.

Now, I saw that I was inside the infirmary. A girl with caramel hair was sitting next to me. She had on bookish, clunky glasses that were green on the inside and black on the outside. Her wavy-ish hair was pinned on either side, leaving the rest to fall to a few inches past her shoulders.

She was wearing blue jean shorts and a Camp Half-Blood shirt.

I touched my watch for a moment. It was one of the only pieces of my life that stayed with me.

"Who are you?" I asked, croakily, clearing my throat.

"I'm Katie Gardner. Who are you?" She asked, leaning forward slightly. I tilted my head.

"I'm Ryl. You must be a daughter of Demeter." I said calmly. She jerked a bit, and pushed her sliding glasses up her nose.

"You know?" She asked. I rolled my eyes. _Think. Act._

"Of course I do, I've been chased by monster hellhounds for days, you know. The gods do exist, right?" I asked, starting to stand up.

Instead of insisting that I needed rest, like most people would, Katie stood up with me, and grinned excitedly.

"Of course they do. Yes, I'm a daughter of Demeter. I'm guessing you're a daughter of Ares, or maybe Hermes. You seem mischievous enough, and you've survived Nyx and Gaea's rising." She said, smiling. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Cool. Do you know where—" I was cut off when the doors swung open. Annabeth strode through, followed by a tall boy with rumpled, curly brown hair and a grinning face.

They both paused when they saw me standing up. Katie froze at my elbow.

"'Sup?" I said after a moment of silence. Annabeth looked at me.

"Ryl, right?" She asked. I nodded cautiously, warily. There was something off about her. About this situation. About everyone. Heck, since I woke up everything had felt off.

"Do you know…" Annabeth trailed off, and I realized she was wondering if I knew about my parentage.

I nodded quickly.

"If you're talking about me being a demigod and all that stuff, yeah. I've known it for, like forever." I mumbled, running my fingers through my hair. Annabeth nodded, not the least bit phased.

"That explains why you managed to get past without being attacked and hurt badly." She said logically. I snorted.

"Right." I said, putting extra sarcasm on the word. I got up, and touched my right shoulder gingerly.

"The only reason I'm alive is because I had help. Lots of it." I said. Annabeth nodded slowly.

"Of course. I suppose you should meet the rest of the campers. They're all wondering who the new girl is that survived the 'apocalypse' as we've named the area around our camp borders. Soon, no demigods will be able to get over it. You're lucky you survived. Especially with no weapons."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I get by. And what do you mean by no weapons?" I asked impishly. Annabeth froze, staring at me, I lifted my wrists, and shook my spiked wristbands at her.

"Imperial gold and celestial bronze mix. Highly unstable, but very effective in getting rid of monsters." I explained. Annabeth nodded, intrigued.

"That's amazing. We've always wanted to try a celestial bronze imperial gold mix, but it always explodes and coats everything with a highly toxic, shaking liquid that explodes when you touch it, so..." She shrugged. I laughed.

"I'll show you how to make it. But for now, let's go meet the campers, right?" I asked. Annabeth nodded.

"Wait a minute. Your watch. It's… well, I think that I've seen it before." She said nervously. I tensed. Placing a hand on my watch, I fingered the invisibility button.

"You must have it confused with something else. This watch is my property. It has been since I was born. There is no way that you could have met me." I said flatly.

Annabeth pursed her lips, but let the matter drop. She sighed.

"Alright. I suppose we must go and meet the campers now." She murmured.

So, together, we four all walked out, into the morning sun. And as we walked out, I couldn't help but feel that somehow, everything was going to go from good too bad, and from bad to worse.

**Percy POV (been a long time since I've written in your POV, Perce J)**

As we replayed the video of Jaffa… my Jaffa, I noticed DoubleH glancing back at the doorway in which we had come from. Sidling over, I muttered softly,

"Expecting anyone?" She didn't even flinch.

"Nope, but I feel like someone is coming. Someone badly hurt." She replied in a low tone. I considered, and deemed her correct.

"Yeah, something feels… off." She nodded in agreement. It was then that the portal blazed white. Everyone turned to look at it. DoubleH and I exchanged grim glances, and got into battle stance. DoubleH drew something out of her pocket, and slipped it into my hand. I looked down.

It was a vial of Greek fire. I looked at her.

"On the count of three." She said so that only I could hear. I blinked to let her know I heard. Then, something came stumbling in, gasping and cursing. I stilled. With all the blood everywhere, I had the feeling that it wouldn't take but an hour tops for that person to die.

Then, I noticed the silvery cape, the bronzed hair, and worst of all, the annoyingly perpetual smirk that resided on his lips. The thought escaped my mouth, sounding aloud in the silent room

"Eta?"

**DUN DUN DUN! Dear dear, the plot just keeps on thickening. Love it? Hate it? Rate it! (don't you just love my rhyme?)**

**Anyways, I want to know how you felt about Ryl and who she is, and yada yada, and all about Eta being killed… or finding DoubleH's secret base, and all that. Should Eta die? Or should he live? Tell me what to do! Ok, see ya, guys J**


	10. Attack

**I'M SO SORRY YOU GUYS! **

**I can't believe that I've left you alone for almost an entire year… but I have an explanation**

**My mom found out about my account, and didn't approve because she thought that it would be a distraction from school work. She changed the password and switched the emails. It was only a couple of days ago that I got it back. I typed up this chapter as fast as possible for you guys, but it's been some time since I've been back in the whole fanfic business, so updates will be slow and erratic.**

**I am so sorry, and I expect that half of my followers have given up on this story.**

**But enough of this. Let's get on to the story.**

**Disclaimer**

**Ryl POV**

As I walked out of the infirmary, I glanced sideways at Katie, Annabeth, and curly headed guy. While they all looked somewhat cheerful, they had a toughened look to them, like they had been through Hades and back.

Annabeth's blonde hair was a tangled mess, and a few strands of dusty hair escaped her bouncy ponytail. The burnished gold locks seemed worn and weary with travel, even though I knew that she had been at camp the whole time. Her sun tanned skin had a tarnished glow, like she was tired and almost dead on her feet.

Her grey eyes still roiled and stormed, though, still alight with a fire that straightened her spine, and made her march forward to meet each day with determination. I admired her for it. Her jean shorts and camp t-shirt were slightly wrinkled and had a worn, faded look to them like she had slept in them the past few days.

Her face was set in a determined scowl, jaw locked tight, head held high, eyes burning straight ahead. I knew that face. After all, it was what I had seen when I looked in the mirror when I was younger.

_Younger, hah._

I thought drily. As Annabeth marched on, I switched my glance to Katie.

Though her silky, caramel hair was neatly combed and pinned up, I saw that a few curly strands had escaped, and the ends of her hair were singed slightly. Her pale skin had a ghostly pallor, and her freckles stood out all the more.

She had a grim set to her face, a steely face devoid of emotion like she was afraid of showing it. When she had smiled at me, I knew that she hadn't smiled for some time; it was a twitchy, weak kind of smile. Her hands twisted nervously as she walked next to me, and I watched her pale, blank face.

She was scared, there was no other way to describe it.

Curly headed boy gently took her hands, stopping her from twisting them together. When she looked at him, he smiled faintly at her, and she relaxed a bit.

They must be boyfriend and girlfriend.

They were a cute couple, but why did I have the feeling that I already knew this? I looked at Curly head who was looking at me, and caught his eye.

_Travis Stoll._

And there goes my 'everything is off' radar. How did I know his name? Maybe I knew him… from someplace.

I observed his lean figure, the round, cherubic face. While his mouth twisted up naturally into a mischievous grin, His eyes were hard, and his jaw, dusted with stubble, was set into a determined line. His unruly brown hair looked like someone had gone at it with a pair of kiddie scissors.

His hair wasn't wayward and messy like Kaze, but more of a wavy, tangled, choppy way. I mentally scanned my brain. No. There was no way I could have met him… or even seen him until today.

I glanced back at his face. He was looking quietly at Katie. Even though outside he portrayed the perfect picture of a caring boyfriend; the rock, the anchor… somehow I knew inside, he was tired and helpless… weary from everything.

How I knew that was something I would like to know.

I sighed as the doors to the infirmary opened. Annabeth paused and looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Sorry. I just can't shake the feeling that I…" _Know you? Seen you before? Hate your guts for some unknown reason? Am supposed to be on your side?_

"Never mind." I muttered instead, choosing to keep my secrets. Annabeth let her penetrating stare sink deeper into me, before throwing the doors wide.

The golden sun instantly hit my skin, and I soaked it up. The warmth filled my core, liquid energy flowing through my veins. I reveled in the heat.

The sky was a bright, cerulean blue with fluffy clouds, drifting by aimlessly. The lush, sweet grass whispered in my ear, and the soft, gentle breeze flowed, ruffling my hair. I put a hand to my bangs.

Everything was so…

_Beautiful._

Then, I realized that there were campers watching. Watching me. The girl who made it past the camp boundaries without even having a single cut or wound. I surveyed them. I noted the nervous, acne prone boy who kept glancing over to a bulky girl with a permanent scowl, and the two boys and girl that were clustered together, away from the crowd.

"Hey." I said calmly. Instantly, the camp was abuzz with whispers.

I can just picture what they're saying.

Scrawny guy is saying to the girl with a scowl, "Do you think she can help us? Do you think she can—"

And then the girl with a scowl will interrupt and say, "Oh, shut up (insert name here), humph, I could beat that girl with my little finger. Like she's big three material."

And then the little trio all by themselves is just consenting to glare at me venomously. I sighed. Annabeth, the kind person she is, decided to swoop in.

"Ok, guys. This is Ryl. She knows about the Greek gods, and is currently undetermined. So, Ryl, would you care to share anything to us?" Annabeth said, taking charge of the situation immediately. I grinned inwardly. I was liking this girl.

"Um, yeah, so my name is Ryl. Well, not really, but I'd prefer my real name to be anonymous. I already know how to fight, so you can go shove your beginner dummies somewhere else, and I'm 16 years old." I said.

The girl from the trio snorted. I whirled on her.

"What, you want to figure out if I can fight or not?" I demanded, my ire rising. Somehow, this girl just gave me the creeps, and the sooner she was dead, the better. Not that I would kill her. It's just an expression, of course.

Trio girl smirked smugly.

"Of course. No camper can best one of us." She gestured to the trio. I looked at them carefully. Then, I turned to Annabeth.

"Is that true?" I asked. She frowned a bit.

"Well, a few… acquaintances came by, and could beat them, but they weren't actually campers, so no, no one can beat them." **(I know, I made them out to be really weak in the first fanfic, but that was just because the knights and assassins from Chaos were SUPER good. So, Samantha, Adam, and Mark the 'trio' are actually pretty good at sword fighting, and whatnot.)**

I sighed.

"How tragic." Then, I calmly slid off my leather jacket, and flexed my arms. I turned to trio girl. She marched up to me. I tilted my head.

"So, what are your weapons?" I asked. She straightened.

"My sword." She replied. I raised an eyebrow.

"Of course. Then, I suppose I won't be needing these…" I slowly slid off my wristbands, and threw them to one side. Trio girl was so absorbed in watching the movement of the spiked wristbands, that she never saw what was happening next.

In one smooth move, I slammed my heel into hers, right on top of her ankle, where the foot connected to her lower leg. She yelped, and reflexively leant forwards to hold her injured foot. Pivoting on one foot, I smashed my elbow up, catching her in the chin, and throwing her several yards. She landed on her back, winded.

Before she could get up, I snapped my fingers. Silver chains erupted form the ground, chaining her in place.

The crowd of campers gasped. Trio girl struggled to get up.

"Hey! Let me up!" She yelped. I made a claw with my hand, and started to draw in my fingers to make a fist. Her chains started to constrict, tightening.

"Be quiet." I said calmly. Trio girl became quiet. I turned to the stunned crowd, and grinning Annabeth. Then, I quietly walked over, picked up my jacket and bracelets, pulled them on, and turned around.

"So… what's next?" I asked Katie.

**DoubleH POV**

The nerve of people these days. I mean honestly, you know, why not just waltz into my secret hideout (presuming that you knew about it all along, so it's not so secret anymore), bleed all over the stone floor (I'm not going to clean it up) and pass out right in front of us? (I kind of wish I could stab him right now)

Oh, and did I mention that this happens to be from _Eta _of all people? Eta, the one who pretended to be on our side, the one who secretly plotted our downfall, the one who broke Sky's hearts just because he couldn't keep his hands to himself. Eta, the one who almost killed us in the end.

I mean really, of course, I suppose I am overreacting a bit, but hey, have you seen what Eta's done?

Well, obviously not, but trust me when I say he backstabbed us hard. I still have the scar.

I gritted my teeth. Being the generous person I am, I decided to give Eta the benefit of the doubt.

"Alyss, get this…"

_Scum? Traitor? _

"This… ah, _person_, to the infirmary. SRoA, would you mind treating him? Will… no the other one… no! Oh for Chaos sake… that Will. Yes, you. Go help SRoA with treating, this… person. Kaze, Fear, Blaze? We need to talk. Alyss, come join us in the council room after helping Will and SRoA." I said calmly… albeit a bit annoyed with the Wills.

Still, I kept quiet, watched as Alyss, SRoA, and Will lugged the bloody Eta to the infirmary. I called out a parting shot

"Just so you know, I want my stone floors to be blood free when I come back in an hour!" Alyss yelled something back. Kaze blinked and looked at me.

"Did she just say-?" He sputtered. I patted his arm. Even if your thousands of years old, it does take some time getting used to Alyss and her lovely, ah, way with words

"Yes, I do believe it has something to do with dishonoring your cow or something." I said innocently, before marching off to the council room, leaving a gaping Kaze and highly amused Blaze and Fear behind me.

**Sky POV**

The patented 'Montrey scowl' on my face sent every wraith swishing about, careening to all the corners, avoiding me at all costs. My cape billowed out behind me, casting shadows in the torchlight.

Dark red stains were dashed across the walls behind me, dripping from the ceiling, pooling on the ground. The chakras I was holding were also stained with the dark red. I flexed my fingers against their grip. It had been ages since I had actually held them for battle.

The sentry I was currently chasing flitted hastily from corridor to corridor, arrogantly thinking that I was currently being overwhelmed by the two other guards who were actually being sucked dry by some hungry wraiths.

Wraiths, they were vile animals. They drank life, in effect. Blood. Souls. Our essence. Once someone was sucked dry by a wraith, all that was left would be their empty shell. Inside, there would be nothing. Nothing except their bones.

I stalked down the shady hallway, light flickering here and there. Up ahead, the sentry paused for a breather, never even thinking to look back and see if I was following him. The chakras in my hands sensed the upcoming kill, and slowly began to glow.

The handles became increasingly warm, my hands melding to them. The blades on the side begin to burn with a faint purple fire. Any other person holding the chakras would have had their hands burned from the blistering heat, but with Poseidon as my father, and my acute understanding of weapons, I was able to concoct a special paste that kept my skin impervious to the effects of the flame.

The sentry ahead caught his breath, before starting for level two of the Gaea establishment. And then, he heard the click of my boots on the stone floor. With a frightened squeak, he flailed away, rushing into a random corridor. He barely made it five steps.

_Snick._ The two chakras slammed into his back, one for each shoulder blade. The sharp blades cut through the bone like it was butter, rendering his arms useless and possibly paralyzing him for life. He made a spluttering gasp before falling face down in the hallway.

The skin on my hands smarted slightly. I must have powered up the chakras too much. Even though I could feel blisters forming, I didn't stop to see if they were alright. Striding down the hall, I grabbed the sentry around his neck and drew him up to eye level.

"Where is he?" I demanded, my voice echoing in the empty corridor.

"I don't know!" He squeaked, trying to squirm out of my grip. I shoved him to the floor, put a booted foot on his back, reached down, and yanked out the chakras. He screamed.

"I can do this all day." I warned him, carefully, polishing off the blood to keep the metal from rusting and getting dirty. I hooked them to my belt.

"I don't know! I swear it, I don't know!" The sentry cried. I frowned. He was lying.

"Well you'd better find out in the next few seconds or you'll find yourself in Hades." I snapped irritably.

"He's gone!" The sentry squeaked, sensing that I was going to be true to my word. I frowned again.

"Gone? What do you mean by gone?" I asked.

"Gone! Mistress told the wraiths to find him! Let me go! He's gone!" The sentry sniveled. I took my booted foot off of him. Then, I took his sword from his belt, and ran it through his back.

**Blaze POV (Yay! Thalia!)**

I sighed as Fear, Kaze and DoubleH conversed in the council room. As much as I would love to intervene and tell them my brilliant plan that always worked, I knew that DoubleH would probably find some flaws in it.

I wasn't trying to sound whiny or mad, it was just… I've been alive for decades. I've strategized great plans that have stopped wars. I've fought battles that have saved millions of lives. Every time I came up against something, I beat it.

I mean, I even helped beat Gaea and Kronos and all those other titans and giants without all of this power and skill. And now, Gaea is rising again (does she ever get the message 'sleep for a couple more billion years?') and even though I'm backed with Chaos, the gods, Camp Half-Blood, the Roman Camp, the Chaos knights and assassins, DoubleH and her helpers, and Kaze and Fear, somehow, we haven't beaten her yet.

We should be able to stop her uprising. We've done it before when we were less experienced… so what's stopping us now?

Even though I don't want to say it, I know why. Jaffa is powerful; there's no doubt about it. She's more experienced, more powerful, more wise. There's no way that any of us could beat her, especially since she's the daughter of fire. And that's the problem.

We've held our own surprisingly well. Gaea hasn't attacked us, though she does send some minions here and there. She's searching out alliances, but doesn't seem to care that we figure out her moves. Heck, she even had Jaffa send us a _video_ telling us that she was on Gaea's side. She didn't send Jaffa over to spy on us, or betray us, or play us.

So what was the point of the video? In my opinion, it did more harm than good to Gaea. And even if we did know that Jaffa was on the other side, she hadn't done any damage yet. I'd expect Gaea to immediately start sending her out to destroy our more powerful allies so that we'd be weakened. But they weren't. So… if they weren't using Jaffa, is Jaffa on our side, or is she on Gaea's side… or was the video a fluke?

What's more, something was wrong. Something was completely and utterly wrong. I knew that Gaea and Nyx (Nyx in particular) were excellent planners. And something is completely and utterly out of proportion. How is it that the other side manages to stop us despite our growth in force and skill, especially since they haven't grown in numbers other than Jaffa, who hasn't been used yet? Something was missing to this puzzle, and it was all I could do to keep from banging my head on the wall.

I was Thalia Grace, one of the most powerful people in the world. I was the wielder of lightning, the best darn strategist you've ever seen, and the most cunning if you count out Fear. So how was it that I was being duped? Duped by my own game and skill.

Somehow, out there in the big world, there was someone to be feared. Someone who could manipulate the pawns, and twist everything into their favor. Someone who somehow managed to steal my game. My game where I was king. My game where I moved the pawns, and planned out the moves, and knew every single freaking detail until I could play the game with my eyes closed.

There was a reason why I was named the best strategist in the world.

And I knew that that someone out there… or those people out there who could manage to wrest my game away from me and use my moves to somehow slip it away from my grasp without me knowing until it was too late… were to be feared. And I hate to admit it, but I was very scared then. Very.

My thoughts were interrupted by Alyss. She walked in, her face tight.

"Eta's awake. And he says that Gaea is currently planning a full attack on Camp Half-Blood."

**Ryl POV**

I basked in the sun as Katie and Annabeth led me on my tour of Camp Half-Blood. It seemed so… happy, but there was the air of sadness. While the trees swayed merrily in the air, their leaves drooped, and I didn't see any dryads being chased by satyrs. The lake was crystal clear and blue, but when I saw the naiads, they darted away, peeking up fearfully. They weren't making any baskets.

The fresh grass and strawberry plants seemed healthy and glowing, but there were occasional scorch marks here and there. I pursed my lips.

"The armory is over there, let's go see what the Hephaestus and Vulcan kids are making." Annabeth said. Katie nodded, and they both dragged me over. The iron doorway was glowing with an internal fire, heated red hot by the fire inside the forges.

When we went inside, we were greeted by a thin boy with black curly hair slicked back with grease. A pair of goggles rested on his head, and his face was blackened with soot except for two circles on his eyes where the goggles must have rested. He had on a sooty Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and a tool belt. In one hand, he wielded a wrench, and in the other, he had a screw driver. **(I know that Leo is one of the Chaos knights, but I decided that he would stay behind at camp to oversee some stuff and help train people)**

"Annabeth! Katie! Pleasure to see you!" He exclaimed, a mischievous smile quirking his lips.

"Leo." Katie said, waving. Leo waved back, yelled something at a passing boy and then turned his attention to me. He snatched a metal engine from the top of a table… wait that wasn't there before… before calling at us,

"Who's the new girl? New meat?" He asked, looking at me inquisitively. I answered back.

"Yeah… just woke up after passing out a couple of days ago." He blinked, set down the falcon automan he had just finished making out of the engine, and started over.

"So you're the new girl. Hmm… are you Hephaestus or Vulcan or—"

"She's undetermined." Annabeth interrupted. Leo nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"Well, that's a relief, wouldn't want to date my sister or something." He said happily, before a burst of flames caught this attention. Hurrying off to go see the problem, he waved goodbye.

"Is he always this blunt about dating people?" I asked amused. Annabeth sighed.

"Yeah; he's a bit of a sucker for all sorts of girls. Anyways, this is the armory. We should probably get outside, it's burning hot in here." She muttered, wiping sweat from her brow.

Surprised, I turned to Katie and saw that she too was sweating. I put a hand to my head. My skin was slightly cool, but near room temperature. No sweat was to be found.

"Yeah, ok." As we all started out of the armory, I turned back just in time to see a glass jar. Inside it was a glowing light… and suddenly, I remembered something.

_The fate of the world is in her hands,_

_The daughter of fire's final stand._

Daughter of fire… Daughter of fire…

I shook my head. What was wrong with me? I kept getting these weird visions. I sighed, and followed Annabeth and Katie out of the armory.

Something was about to happen. Something bad. Something very, very, very bad. I sighed again, and looked out to the camp border.

_The daughter of fire's final stand._

**DoubleH POV**

_Today is not a good day. _I thought to myself wearily. First, we get the message that Jaffa is not on our side. To be more specific, she's currently going against us, and is probably brainwashed by Gaea. The fact that Jaffa was able to be turned to Gaea's side is scary. To know that Gaea has that much power.

And then, of course, Eta just happens across my 'secret' hideout. Apparently, Gaea was trying to kill him to get rid of loose ends. Apparently, she believed that he would be a wild card. Or maybe, he's just lying… like he had been before.

And of course, he sends us out on the possibly fake quest that Camp Half Blood was going to be under attack. Of course he does. So that while I'm away, he can possibly wreak havoc and discover all my hidden secrets.

Of course.

Or maybe, he's telling the truth, and maybe I could possibly be late, and Camp Half Blood will be in ruins when I arrive.

And of course, there's always the scene where Eta really is on our side, but then has a change of heart, decides to go psycho, and kills everyone at the hideout.

Of course.

Normally, I could easily pin down a person. If they were on our side… or not, or even if they could possibly be volatile enough to have a change of heart. But Eta… he's a slippery snake. I guess Gaea was right, if he was telling the truth.

Eta is a wildcard.

But there's no time to think about this. I have to get my bearings and go see if Camp Half Blood needs help. And if they don't, Eta's going to find out just how far I can drop kick someone.

I arrived at Camp Half blood, sliding off my shadow horse **(A.N remember how DoubleH has all these cool shadow powers) **and jogged into the borders. Immediately campers surrounded me, probably mistaking my silver cloak for that of Jaffa… unless they remembered me.

Annabeth came running up with Katie Gardner and another girl I didn't recognize in tow. The girl blinked when she saw me, but her facial features remained emotionless.

"DoubleH! I'm so glad you could visit!" Annabeth chirped. I smiled.

"Annabeth, nice to see you to. I have… news. If it's true, then Camp Half Blood is in bad shape." I said seriously, watching her sunny face fall. The new girl ran her fingers through her hair, pushing her bangs out of her face.

She was pretty, that much I could see. Tall, slender with a rather lean figure, she seemed more catlike and sleek instead of curvy. So that ruled out Aphrodite. She seemed like a good fighter, but wasn't very muscular, so she couldn't be Ares. Maybe she was a daughter of Hermes… or maybe a daughter of Demeter.

Still, she cut an imposing figure. She noticed me observing her, shifted a bit on her worn combat boots, and fingered her spiked bracelets. I looked at the metal. It was… unlike anything I had ever seen. If Jaffa was here… or Sky…

They were our best bet when it came to unknown substances. Sky because she had a natural affinity to weapons. Poison, unknown metal that could possibly be dangerous… you name it. She had a name for it, and within minutes, would be able to figure out everything there was to know about it.

And Jaffa because she had… interesting relations with unknown forces.

Annabeth must have sensed that the new girl and I were sizing each other up, because she burst into our little glare down.

"Hey, DoubleH, this is Ryl. Ryl, meet DoubleH. She's kind of a part of the Chaos knights that I've told you about. Leo's one of them too, but he stayed in Camp Half blood since we needed some help around. DoubleH, Ryl is one of the few new demigods that have made it across the camp border… and she was pretty much unscathed as well."

Ryl smiled at me, and relaxed when she heard I was part of the Chaos knights. She probably thought that I was some kind of possessed camper that could be evil.

Her face, previously guarded and stony, had opened up into a grin. Her eyes… were strangely innocent looking… It was like seeing a trapped soul. I mean, you know how peoples say that the eyes are the window to your soul and all that… and to me, it looked like Ryl's soul was a bit too young for someone as old as her.

There was something off about her. And I was going to find out why.

**Man.**

**This sucked.**

**I'm so very sorry to everyone. I will try to update as soon as possible, but as I said, it will be difficult. Exams are coming up (ugh) and I need to study big time.**

**Review and tell me what you think will happen. I have a special treat for the person who guesses most accurately**

**Thank you to all who will continue to read this**

AND ALSO: I just recently reviewed this story as a guest explaining that I would never be back on this account, but since my mom gave it back, please ignore the review


	11. Quest for the Magical Paintbrush

**Hi again. I'm not surprised to see that not many people have come back to my fic (I deserve it), but I am thankful to the handful that have viewed this story since I've updated. This is the next chapter; I hope that all of you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer**

**Annabeth POV**

Everyone around the table was tense, their faces set in hard lines on their pale faces, weapons and knives gripped in calloused hands. Only Ryl seemed to be at ease. It wasn't that she was careless or foolish; she probably just didn't understand what the camp had been going to through.

Every day monsters would come to the border, raiding, screaming, shouting curses and throwing Greek fire. It was a miracle if anyone got a full night's rest with that racket going on. Peleus was practically half dead from protecting the gold fleece and the camp border's magic.

Everyone was living in fear basically; too scared to go out of the borders for fear of a surprise attack. We didn't need anyone dying now; the camp was low enough on supplies and campers already. Everyone had gotten a crash course in healing and the basic first aid just in case, and the Apollo and Demeter kids were half asleep from staying up all night to gather herbs and supplies to tend to some of the wounded.

During meals, what had once been a cheerful pavilion filled with the buzz of people chatting and laughing with each other had turned into a tense silence where everyone nervously ate and left; the sooner the better.

Camp had gotten from what used to be a happy home into a gloomy grave. It was obvious to see that one day our luck would run out. I just hoped that my death would be a fast one.

I sighed, running a hand through my dusty ponytail, and wincing as my fingers got caught in the many snarls and tangles. There wasn't even enough time to take a decent shower or comb your hair. What had this place become?

Still, I would just have to power through. One day, someone magical would come, like Jaffa or maybe DoubleH or something, and maybe the Chaos knights would be able to help. Then maybe we would be ready.

"Ok everyone. DoubleH has some news for everyone." I announced, glancing at DoubleH. All the cabin leaders looked at her.

DoubleH spoke up.

"Ok guys, this is it. At my hideout, I've received quite a bit of news. You're not going to like this at all." She said, leaning forward, twirling a slender dagger between her fingers.

Clarisse grunted, lifting her mud caked boots, and planting them on the table in front of her.

"Since when did we ever like any news as of late? What now, Gaea's somehow magically recruited another ally? What do we call him, the son of light, or what?" She sneered, crossing her arms across her chest, and glaring angrily at DoubleH.

DoubleH sighed.

"Actually, you're not too far from the mark. The only thing is…" DoubleH trailed off. Ryl leaned in.

"The only thing is?" She prompted. DoubleH rubbed a hand over her face.

"We all know who she recruited." DoubleH looked at me meaningfully. And it hit me like a sack of potatoes.

"Shoot." I breathed slowly, and everyone looked over at me curiously. DoubleH nodded solemnly.

"Yeah. They somehow managed to bring Jaffa back to life. She's currently brainwashed, and is now on their side."

**DoubleH POV**

This day could not get any worse. Did I mention that before? Because I'm serious when I say this. We are out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

Around me, I could see the shocked faces as the campers registered what I had just said. Katie frowned, biting her lip.

"That's impossible; how would they manage to bring back Jaffa? I mean, Gaea was the reason she died anyways, and then after that weird stunt with the phoenix ball of light, I thought Nico said that her soul was literally ripped into shreds; that there was no way she could come back." She mused thoughtfully.

I grimaced.

"About that. Well, I have a theory. Actually, Kaze, Fear, and Blaze agree with me. There's another thing that we're missing, and that's obviously how they managed to bring Jaffa back. I feel stupid when I look back on it. You see, there's only 2 or 3 objects and substances with enough power to bring back someone who's dead beyond dead. Someone who's faded beyond faded. And the sad thing is that I think I know what it is, and you're definitely not going to like it when I tell you." I said. Travis waved his hand.

"Go on. I doubt anything could ever be worse than our current situation." He said flippantly. I frowned.

"This isn't funny, Stoll. In fact, if you think that nothing could get worse, you're wrong. Horribly wrong. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Do you know what I know? Know my knowledge of the world? Know just how freaking horrible it feels when history repeats itself? Well you don't because you weren't alive for long enough. And let me tell you; this fight it like a grain of sand in the war to come. You don't even know the half of it." I snapped, feeling anger build up.

These campers were smart. They were good fighters, and they were resourceful. But somehow, their careless and foolish attitudes were so irritating it was all I could do to not kill them. Sadly, I had the feeling that I would somehow make matters worse. After all, it was my unlucky day today.

Travis scowled, suitably chastened, and Katie rubbed his shoulder soothingly to keep him from lashing out anymore. I took a deep breath.

"Look, people. I know we're all tired, and we're all hoping that this nightmare will end soon. But it won't, and you have to live with it. If you want to give up and dream up a world where this is the worst life can get, then dream on. But just know that when you wake up, the reality will shake you to the core.

What I wanted to tell you was that I have way more information. See, Eta… you all remember Eta, right? Well apparently he's arrived at my hideout, and is currently unconscious due to the fact that Gaea wanted to kill him. I don't know whether or not I should believe him, but I have to try.

He said that Gaea is planning a full scale invasion of your camp borders. He doesn't know the details, but what I gleaned from the information is this: Gaea has planted a spy among you. He doesn't remember who it is or what they look like because he somehow managed to get amnesia from bonking his head on a rock or something.

He said that the spy would basically act like a camper until it was time for the invasion, which is when the spy had collected enough information on everyone. I know, it's like the Last Prophecy all over again. Still, what he says is that apparently, the spy will find something important… something that will help bring down the camp borders long enough for Gaea and Nyx to attack.

And when they do, they'll bring the whole underworld with them. And that isn't even the worst part. While we were talking, Kaze, Fear, Blaze and I came to an agreement. Gaea has a weapon. A powerful weapon. It's… a magic paintbrush."

**Mystery POV**

Man, I was sure I would be skinned alive when I heard DoubleH's news. The worst part was that Eta had escaped. Eta had escaped because Gaea wanted to kill him. Eta. My friend. Yes, yes, say what you want.

I'm the spy that DoubleH was talking about. But I don't want to believe her. I don't want to listen to her horrible news.

My instructions had been simple. Get in, get information, and relay it every week in a secret code on the ground. Gaea would gather the code, and decode it to get my information before sending me back new instructions. But this… this wasn't what I had expected.

Sure every little spy probably dreams about getting the wondrous job of bringing about a full scale massacre. But not me. I think I've somehow gotten soft. Before I would do as I was told… heck, I had done this more times than I could count.

Get in, get info, break the walls, storm the castle. It was that simple, really.

But somehow there was that clamoring little voice demanding that I take pity on the poor people before me. To take pity on the worn and heavy hearted campers who had just been told that the odds of living in this fight was 1 to a couple million.

Where that voice had come from I had no idea.

I had been so scared when DoubleH had mentioned the spy. It was like falling into a bath of ice cold water. Luckily no one had even considered me to be the spy. And I could tell that they were slowly doubting who was on their side or not.

Was that Gaea's plan? Send Eta to the Chaos nights under the pretense that he was going to be on their side, and tell them enough information to get them to know that there was a spy, and they might be the death of everyone. Then everyone would doubt their friends, doubt their counselors. And when it got to be too much, with the tension running high and high-strung nerves, it was pretty obvious that someone was going to snap, and soon.

And now, suddenly, I feel like I'm drowning.

What decision should I make? Maybe DoubleH was lying, maybe she wasn't. I'll ask Gaea about it tonight. But… then she'll know that Eta escaped. As much as I am bound to Gaea, there is no way I could ever double cross Eta despite the fact that I met him like a week ago.

I feel like I know him. Like I've known him well. It's almost like relearning the back or your hand. And then there also that little soft part that keeps tingling and urging me to save lives and go to the right side, but I can't. I just can't.

Because of Gaea.

I am bound to her tightly.

What am I supposed to do?

**Annabeth POV**

Ryl had asked to go outside. The poor girl looked quite a bit shaken. I guess it was probably because she hadn't been to an actual war before. Even though she had killed monsters and fight for her life on the streets, I had the feeling that she was a peace maker. But then there's that feeling that I'm off about something, but I suppose it just nerves.

Jabbing a finger at the dusty, crinkled page before me, I glanced around to make sure I had everyone's attention.

"This is it." I said confidently.

Dwyer, the leader of the Apollo cabin** (look at the 'Daughter of Fire and Chaos' fanfic) **leaned forward.

"So… this is the paintbrush?" He asked, somewhat confused. DoubleH leaned and observed the worn pages.

"Yes. That's it." Looking at his skeptical glance, she rolled her shoulders.

"Look. This isn't just any paintbrush, buddy, this is a magic paintbrush." She said in a half irritated, half exhausted kind of way. Clarisse clunked her boots on the floor and stalked over to us.

"Then do tell us about this paintbrush already." She snapped. DoubleH frowned.

"Have you ever read the Chinese folktale about a magic paintbrush? There was a man called Ma Liang. He was really kind and generous to people, and received a paintbrush that was magic. Basically, it had the power to bring whatever it painted to life." She said. Clarisse stared.

"You mean to say that you think that Gaea has a paintbrush that can literally create anything by using it to paint." Clarisse asked incredulously. DoubleH shrugged.

"Well, when you think about it, it makes sense. They would be able to create some sort of bond that would bring Jaffa's soul back together by painting it up, and then they would be able to brainwash her by simply imagining and painting up some weird sort of poison or something so that she'll be their loyal slave.

What's more, it explains how Gaea still has the upper hand on us. The doors of death are closed. She can no longer bring back to life monsters in the underworld, and yet she still is beating us. We've got new troops, new powerful allies, and even though Jaffa's on Gaea's side, we have the force and strength to beat even her.

The only plausible reason would be an extremely powerful weapon, which just so happens to be the paintbrush." DoubleH reasoned calmly. I ran my hair through my tangled hair again.

"Clarisse, DoubleH is right. Either Gaea is supremely lucky, or she has the paintbrush. That or she has another weapon just as powerful." I said forcefully. Katie spoke up.

"So… you mean that this paintbrush might not be in Gaea's hands, and we could just be playing right into a trap?" She asked stiffly. DoubleH ran her hand over her face again.

"Look. I know this is all scary and what now, but you have to learn to take some risks. If you take the right ones, you'll end up in the top. And I think that this risk is one that I'm willing to take. I think it's the right risk to take." She said.

I looked at everyone. Their faces were hesitant, but when I met their eyes, they met mine with a strong resolve.

"All in favor of a quest, say—" what I was going to say next was cut off as the door was yanked open. It was Ryl.

She stood, drenched in water, bangs plastered to her forehead, leather jacket ripped and smoking.

"You guys… the camp's under attack."

**Ryl POV**

_Dear gods._

I thought after dodging a blast of fire. The hellhound that was currently obsessed with making me into it's little ragdoll howled and bounded towards me, it's bloody maw open wide so I could see it's beautifully sharpened teeth.

Leaping to the side, I clubbed it on the head with my wrists, and the imperial/celestial mix from the spiked wrist bands immediately dissolved the monster into yellow sawdust. Looking around, I saw Annabeth running into the fray, a cap in one hand, dagger in the other.

DoubleH was scowling as she stabbed another monster in the stomach, and then flipped behind the hellhound that was coming up behind her to stab it in the back. She was definitely not happy.

Wearily, I turned to face my next opponents, who were a couple of dracaena, intent on killing me. Casually flicking off a bit of ash on my shoulder, I took my stance, warily waiting for them to make a move on me. The first dracaena threw her net, which I dodged easily.

When she thrusted at me with her spear, I sidestepped, spun on my heel before catching the shaft and snapping it in half. The other dracaena surrounded me, their spears at the ready. Before they could stab me, however, I back flipped over their head, and used the broken shaft of the spear, to stab one of them in the back.

Then, I used the shaft to block the oncoming attacks from the spears. Eventually, I managed to lead them over to a jar of greek fire, which I tossed at them. They went up in flames.

The raid had come out of nowhere. One minute, I was standing there, wondering what kind of person hated the world right now, and the next, I heard the baying of hellhounds, and the screeching of harpies. How had they all appeared? I just barely managed to keep myself from catching on fire when a jar of Greek fire crashed near me.

Looking around, I saw a group of demigods surrounded by laistrygonians. Among them was a boy from the Hermes cabin. I think his name was Justin. One of the hellhounds pounced on an unfortunate camper, and without thinking, I willed a bunch of chains to come up from the ground, and throttled the monster. Jogging over, I helped the camper up.

It was Leo.

"Woah, girl, where did you learn a stunt like that?" He panted, wiping some grease from his forehead, and rummaging in his tool belt for something.

"No idea." I lied, kneeing another laistrygonian before punching his lights out. As you can see, I prefer close combat.

Leo found what he was looking for, and drew out two hammers. I raised my eyebrows. Where had those come from?

"Magic tool belt." Leo explained, beaning a monster on the head. We stood, back to back, fighting.

"I see." I commented dryly. Then, I felt a sudden heat. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Leo had set his hammers aflame… in fact, he was on fire. I blinked. Leo was a son of Hephaestus which meant… oh.

"Fire user?" I asked. He grinned proudly.

"Yeah… hey! How did you know about fire users?"

But I was already gone, dodging monsters. I heard him curse, and I grinned despite myself. Playing with these people was so fun. As I ran, I let my magic run from my fingertips, fire sparks dancing on my hands. Every monster I passed was instantly fried and killed.

Eventually, I noted that the monsters were retreating. Several campers were running after them, slowly spreading out, spreading thin. If they didn't stop, they would accidentally run over the border and be easy meat. Looking around, I caught Annabeth's eye.

"Draw back!" I shouted, pointing frantically at the campers. She nodded, and shouted something to Chiron. He blew into a conch horn. The campers immediately drew back, leaving their fights and coming back into the camp.

Some monsters screamed abuse, and threw some more weapons and Greek fire, but they remained outside of the borders, slowly trickling into the woods.

Running up to Annabeth, I scowled.

"Ok. Someone needs to tell me what's going on." I said. Annabeth sighed.

"Here. Follow me." I rolled my eyes, but motioned for DoubleH, and followed her to behind the big house.

Annabeth sighed.

"Ok, so you walked out when we were talking about the magic paintbrush."

I raised an eyebrow. The paintbrush. Of course.

**Annabeth POV (sorry for all the switching around… this has got to be the, what, third time I've written in her POV? Well, anyways, sorry J)**

"Do tell me about this lovely paintbrush." Ryl said sarcastically, running her hand through her damp fringe. I sighed and explained everything. When I finished, Ryl cocked her head to the side.

"Alright. Fine. So we go on a quest to find this magical paintbrush… and hope that somehow we'll manage to capture it from Gaea and Nyx." Ryl said, running her fingers through her fringe again.

"Don't forget, the paintbrush has a keeper… since Ma Liang is probably dead, we have to believe that a descendent of him got it or something." DoubleH concluded thoughtfully. I tilted my head in concentration.

"Not necessarily. Ma Liang might be alive despite the fact that he is technically the hero of his story. Besides, he could easily draw up a magic barrier for his paintbrush. There are a lot of factors in this." I said.

Ryl scowled.

"Let me get this straight. We are going on a quest out of the camp borders… where giant hellhounds and giants are currently lying in wait for us to eat our tasty little bones, and find a paintbrush. Not just any ordinary paintbrush, but a magic one that could possibly ruin the entire world with one drawing. Let's not forget that the guy… Ma Liang, might have you know, broken the paintbrush, or somehow magically painted up obstacles and curses for his paintbrush that could, you know, kill us with one touch… and let's also not forget that a possible descendent who could possibly be holding the key to the world will have it, and might not be on our side, and have you even thought about the fact that the paintbrush might not be real?" She asked dryly.

DoubleH sighed, and shifted her weight.

"I'm sorry to say this, but I've got to add to your little rant. I won't be able to go on the quest; I need to get back to base."

I clenched my fists. Going over it in my head made me realize just how hopeless the mission was. But if there was the chance… even a spider's thread of hope, I had to take it.

"We have to do this." I said slowly. Ryl met my eyes. She sighed.

"Ok. But who'll be going to take the quest?" She asked.

I looked out to the Big House.

"I think we finally need to talk to the oracle."

**End of chapter 11**

**I hope that this is starting to pick up to my faithful readers who have stuck with me so far.**

**Review and tell me what you think about everything; as I said before, those who guess correctly what will happen will be rewarded with a special treat!**

**Thanks everyone who read this chapter.**


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